By De La Garza                                         H.B. No. 523
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 523:
          By Oakley                                          C.S.H.B. No. 523
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to stolen vehicle checkpoints near the Mexico border;
    1-3  relating to the jurisdiction of a magistrate to hear a stolen
    1-4  property disposition hearing; relating to certain information
    1-5  required on a certificate of title.
    1-6        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-7        SECTION 1.  Subsection (b) of Section 411.0095, Government
    1-8  Code, is amended to read as follows:
    1-9        (b)  A checkpoint may be established for the purpose of
   1-10  preventing stolen vehicles, farm tractors or implements, or
   1-11  construction equipment from entering Mexico if the checkpoint is:
   1-12              (1)  located within 250 yards north of a federally
   1-13  designated crossing at <feet of> the Mexican border;
   1-14              (2)  located on a public highway or street leading
   1-15  directly to an international crossing; and
   1-16              (3)  designed to stop only traffic bound for Mexico.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  Section 411.0095, Government Code, is renumbered
   1-18  Section 411.0096, Government Code.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  Section (a) of Article 47.01a, Code of Criminal
   1-20  Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
   1-21        (a)  If a criminal action relating to allegedly stolen
   1-22  property is not pending, a district judge, county court judge,
   1-23  statutory county court judge, or justice of the peace having
    2-1  jurisdiction as a magistrate in the county in which the property is
    2-2  held or a municipal judge having jurisdiction as a magistrate in
    2-3  the municipality in which the property is being held may hold a
    2-4  hearing to determine the right to possession of the property, upon
    2-5  the petition of an interested person, a county, a city, or the
    2-6  state.  Jurisdiction under this section is based solely on
    2-7  jurisdiction as a criminal magistrate under this code and not
    2-8  jurisdiction as a civil court.  The court shall:
    2-9              (1)  order the property delivered to whoever has the
   2-10  superior right to possession, without conditions; or
   2-11              (2)  on the filing of a written motion before trial by
   2-12  an attorney representing the state, order the property delivered to
   2-13  whoever has the superior right to possession, subject to the
   2-14  condition that the property be made available to the prosecuting
   2-15  authority should it be needed in future prosecutions; or
   2-16              (3)  order the property awarded to the custody of the
   2-17  peace officer, pending resolution of criminal investigations
   2-18  regarding the property.
   2-19        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-24  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-25  passage, and it is so enacted.