By: Staples S.B. No. 1835
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to testing for communicable diseases of certain persons
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 ana misdemeanor or felony
offense [under Section 38.04, Penal Code] and who during the
commission of that offense [committed an assault on a peace officer
by biting the officer or otherwise causing] causes 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.