AB 417

Under current law, in a criminal case for throwing or expelling bodily substances at a public safety worker or prosecutor or at specified individuals in a prison, if the district attorney has probable cause to believe that the act carried a potential for transmitting a communicable disease to the victim and involved the defendant’s blood, semen, vomit, saliva, urine, or feces or other bodily substance of the defendant, the district attorney must apply to the circuit court for an order to require the defendant to submit to testing to detect the presence of communicable diseases, and those results must be disclosed to the victim if certain criteria are met.

This bill amends the process under current law to apply to any crime if the district attorney has probable cause to believe that the act carried a potential for transmitting a communicable disease to a public safety worker, prosecutor, or correctional staff member and involved the defendant’s blood, semen, vomit, saliva, urine, or feces or other bodily substance of the defendant.

The bill also creates an expedited process for testing when it is requested by a public safety worker, prosecutor, or correctional staff member. Under the bill, the district attorney may, at any time, regardless of whether criminal proceedings have commenced, apply to the circuit court for a waiver of the normal hearing requirement and for an emergency order to require the defendant to immediately submit to testing. Under the bill, the district attorney may make such an application only if the district attorney has probable cause to believe that waiving the hearing and expediting a defendant to submit to testing will prevent a public safety worker, prosecutor, or correctional staff member from experiencing bodily harm that could result from delaying the test. Under the bill, the court must immediately hear the application for an emergency order and grant the order if it finds that the existing requirements for such an order are met and also finds that waiving the hearing and expediting the defendant to submit to testing will prevent a public safety worker, prosecutor, or correctional staff member from experiencing bodily harm that could result from delaying the test.

The bill also provides that if a defendant is found guilty of a crime for which the court has required the defendant to submit to communicable disease testing, the defendant must be required to pay, as restitution, the costs of any communicable disease testing that was ordered.