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House Bill 1690 |
House Author: King, Phil et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-15 |
Senate Sponsor: Huffman et al. |
House Bill 1690 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Rangers division of the Department of Public Safety to establish and support a public integrity unit that, on receiving a formal or informal complaint regarding an offense against public administration, as such an offense is specified by the bill, or on request of a prosecuting attorney or law enforcement agency, may perform an initial investigation into whether a person has committed such an offense. The bill gives the Texas Rangers the authority to investigate an offense against public administration, any lesser included offense, and any other offense arising from conduct that constitutes an offense against public administration and requires the matter to be referred to the prosecuting attorney of the county in which the defendant resided at the time the offense was committed or in which venue is proper under the Code of Criminal Procedure, as applicable, if the public integrity unit's initial investigation demonstrates reasonable suspicion that such an offense occurred. The bill requires the public integrity unit, on request of the prosecuting attorney, to assist the attorney in the investigation of an offense against public administration and requires the prosecuting attorney to notify the public integrity unit of the termination of a case or the results of the final disposition of a case investigated by the public integrity unit. The bill requires a state agency or local law enforcement agency to cooperate with the public integrity unit and prosecuting attorney by providing resources and information requested by the unit and makes such information disclosed confidential and not subject to state public information law. The bill requires the comptroller of public accounts to pay from funds appropriated to the comptroller's judiciary section, from appropriations made specifically for enforcement of public integrity prosecutions, reasonable amounts incurred by a prosecuting attorney for extraordinary costs of prosecution of an offense against public administration. Among other provisions, the bill provides for the recusal and selection of a prosecuting attorney by a presiding judge of the administrative judicial region and authorizes the public integrity unit to issue subpoenas in connection with an investigation of an alleged offense against public administration.