By:  Kuempel                                          H.B. No. 2112
       73R6192 DRH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to asset forfeiture for certain property crimes committed
    1-3  against the elderly.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 59, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended by adding Article 59.12 to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 59.12.  FORFEITURE FOR CERTAIN OFFENSES COMMITTED
    1-8  AGAINST THE ELDERLY.  (a)  In regards to contraband resulting from
    1-9  the commission of a felony offense under Chapter 31 or 32, Penal
   1-10  Code, against a person who was 65 years of age or older at the time
   1-11  of the offense, the attorney representing the state may:
   1-12              (1)  obtain a search warrant to locate the contraband;
   1-13              (2)  petition the court for an ex parte hearing to
   1-14  freeze a bank account on a showing that there is probable cause to
   1-15  believe the account consists partly or wholly of contraband; and
   1-16              (3)  return the contraband, including contraband
   1-17  transferred to an attorney as payment for representation of a
   1-18  defendant in the case, to a victim of the offense.
   1-19        (b)  An attorney representing the state may use the
   1-20  procedures established in this article or the procedures
   1-21  established by other provisions of this chapter to effect
   1-22  forfeiture in a criminal case described by Subsection (a) of this
   1-23  article.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
    2-1  only to forfeiture for an offense committed on or after the
    2-2  effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an
    2-3  offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any
    2-4  element of the offense occurs before that date.
    2-5        (b)  Forfeiture for an offense committed before the effective
    2-6  date of this Act is governed by the law in effect when the offense
    2-7  was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for this
    2-8  purpose.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-10        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.