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By: Staples S.B. No. 1835
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to testing for communicable diseases certain people who
are arrested.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Article 18.22, Code of Criminal
Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
(a) A person who is arrested for a misdemeanor or felony [an
offense under Section 38.04, Penal Code,] and who during the
commission of that offense or an arrest following the commission of
that offense causes a peace [committed an assault on a peace officer
by biting the officer or otherwise causing the] officer to come into
contact with the person's bodily fluids shall, at the direction of
the court having jurisdiction over the arrested person, undergo a
medical procedure or test designed to show or help show whether the
person has a communicable disease. The court may direct the person
to undergo the procedure or test on its own motion or on the request
of the peace officer. If the person refuses to submit voluntarily
to the procedure or test, the court shall require the person to
submit to the procedure or test. Notwithstanding any other law, the
person performing the procedure or test shall make the test results
available to the local health authority, and the local health
authority shall notify the peace officer of the test result. The
state may not use the fact that a medical procedure or test was
performed on a person under this article, or use the results of the
procedure or test, in any criminal proceeding arising out of the
alleged offense.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.