Bill Text: CA AB1253 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Hearsay: exceptions.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-10-07 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 363, Statutes of 2023. [AB1253 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB1253-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  April 13, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1253

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Introduced by Assembly Member Maienschein

February 16, 2023

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An act to amend Section 3506 of the Civil Code, relating to nuisance. An act to add Section 1285 to the Evidence Code, relating to hearsay.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1253, as amended, Maienschein. Nuisance: motion pictures: enforcement. Hearsay: exceptions.

Existing law requires the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to refer a person who was convicted of a sexually violent offense and is in prison or whose parole has been revoked for evaluation by the State Department of State Hospitals to determine whether the person is a sexually violent predator before the person’s release from prison. If the State Department of State Hospitals determines that the person is a sexually violent predator, then the Director of State Hospitals must ask the county in which the person was convicted of the offense to file a petition in superior court to involuntarily commit the person to a secure facility for mental health treatment upon the person’s release from prison. Upon filing, if a judge determines that this petition, on its face, contains sufficient facts to constitute probable cause to believe that the person is likely to engage in sexually violent predatory criminal behavior upon their release, the judge must order the person to be detained in a secure facility until a probable cause hearing can be completed. If, at this hearing, the judge determines that there is probable cause, the judge must order that the person remain in custody in a secure facility until a trial is completed, and must order that a trial be conducted to determine whether the person is, by reason of a diagnosed mental disorder, a danger to the health and safety of others in that the person is likely to engage in acts of sexual violence upon the person’s release from prison.

Existing law defines hearsay as evidence of a statement that was made other than by a witness while testifying at a hearing and that is offered to prove the truth of the matter stated. Except as provided by law, hearsay evidence is inadmissible. Existing case law, as established in Walker v. Superior Court (2021) 12 Cal.5th 177, provides that there is no indication the Legislature created an explicit hearsay exception to allow hearsay, in the form of police and probation office reports, to be admitted as evidence in the probable cause hearing described above.

This bill would provide that within an official written report or record of a law enforcement officer regarding a sexual offense that resulted in a person’s conviction, the following statements are not inadmissible hearsay at the probable cause hearing described above: (1) a statement from a victim of the sexual offense resulting in the person’s conviction, (2) a statement from an eyewitness to the sexual offense resulting in the person’s conviction, or (3) a statement from a sexual assault medical examiner who examined a victim of the sexual offense resulting in the person’s conviction.

Existing law defines a nuisance as anything injurious to health, indecent or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, as specified. Under existing law, a nuisance includes the exhibition of a motion picture in which an intentional killing of, or cruelty to, a human being or an animal is shown if that action actually occurred in the production of the motion picture. Existing law authorizes the district attorney or the Attorney General to commence an action in equity to abate and prevent this nuisance and to perpetually enjoin the person conducting or maintaining it, as provided.

This bill would additionally authorize the county counsel to commence an action, as described above.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 1285 is added to the Evidence Code, immediately following Section 1284, to read:

1285.

 Within an official written report or record of a law enforcement officer regarding a sexual offense that resulted in a person’s conviction, the following statements are not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule at the civil hearing described in Section 6602 of the Welfare and Institutions Code when used to establish whether there is probable cause to believe that the person is likely to engage in sexually violent predatory criminal behavior upon the person’s release from custody:

(a) A statement from a victim of the sexual offense that resulted in the person’s conviction.

(b) A statement from an eyewitness to the sexual offense that resulted in the person’s conviction.

(c) A statement from a sexual assault medical examiner who examined a victim of the sexual offense that resulted in the person’s conviction.

SECTION 1.Section 3506 of the Civil Code is amended to read:

3506.

Whenever there is reasonable cause to believe that a nuisance as defined in this title is kept, maintained or is in existence in any county, the district attorney, county counsel, or the Attorney General, in the name of the people of the State of California, shall, on a proper showing, commence an action in equity to abate and prevent the nuisance and to perpetually enjoin the person conducting or maintaining it, and the owner, lessee or agent of the building, or place, in or upon which the nuisance exists, from maintaining or permitting it. As used herein, a proper showing to commence an action under this title must be based upon evidence independent of the motion picture itself that intentional killing of, or cruelty to, a human being or an animal actually occurred in the production of the motion picture for the purpose of such production.