By Carter                                             H.B. No. 2130
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to disposition of out-of-county crimes.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Article 4.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-5     amended to read as follows:
 1-6           Art. 4.12.  Misdemeanor cases; precinct in which defendant to
 1-7     be tried in justice court.  (a)  A misdemeanor case to be tried in
 1-8     justice court shall be tried in the precinct in which the offense
 1-9     was committed, or in which the defendant or any of the defendants
1-10     reside, or, with the written consent of the State and each
1-11     defendant or his attorney, in any other precinct within the county;
1-12     provided that in any misdemeanor case in which the offense was
1-13     committed in a precinct where there is no qualified justice
1-14     precinct court, then trial shall be had in the next adjacent
1-15     precinct in the same county which may have a duly qualified justice
1-16     precinct court, or in the precinct in which the defendant may
1-17     reside.
1-18           (b)  In [; provided that in] any such misdemeanor case, when
1-19     [upon disqualification] for any reason [of] all justices of the
1-20     peace in the precinct where the offense was committed are
1-21     disqualified, such case may be tried in the next adjoining precinct
1-22     in the same county, having a duly qualified justice of the peace.
1-23           (c)  A defendant who is taken before a magistrate in
1-24     accordance with Article 15.18 may waive trial by jury and enter a
 2-1     plea of guilty or nolo contendere.  The magistrate taking the plea
 2-2     may set a fine, give credit for time served, determine indigency,
 2-3     and discharge the defendant, as the case may be.
 2-4           SECTION 2.  Article 15.18, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 2-5     amended to read as follows:
 2-6           Art. 15.18.  ARREST FOR OUT-OF-COUNTY OFFENSE.  A person
 2-7     [One] arrested under a warrant issued in a county other than the
 2-8     one in which the person is arrested shall be taken before a
 2-9     magistrate of the county where the arrest takes place who shall:
2-10                 (1)  take bail, if allowed by law, and immediately
2-11     transmit the bond taken to the court having jurisdiction of the
2-12     offense; or
2-13                 (2)  in the case of a person arrested under warrant for
2-14     an offense punishable by fine only, accept a plea of guilty or nolo
2-15     contendere, set a fine, give credit for time served, or determine
2-16     indigency, as the case may indicate.
2-17           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-18           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.