BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1721

By: Lucio III

Criminal Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, a court is authorized to render a protective order for certain victims of physical family violence and sexual assault.  Victims of stalking, who experience similar fear and isolation, are ineligible for this court order.

Additionally, while a child is allowed to testify at a hearing on an application for a protective order for a victim of sexual assault, hearsay evidence is not allowed to be submitted at such a hearing.  This means that children, who often observe some of the worst violence, must relive these situations even if they've already reached out to a reliable adult.

H.B. 1721 seeks to provide stalking victims and child victims the same protection as family violence victims by authorizing a victim of stalking to request a court to render a protective order and allowing statements made by children under 14 years old to be admissible as evidence in proceedings relating to certain protective orders.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 1721 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize a person to request a court, at any proceeding related to an offense of stalking in which the defendant appears before the court, to render a protective order under Family Code provisions relating to family violence for the protection of the person. The bill provides that such a request is made by filing "An Application for a Protective Order" in the same manner as an application for a protective order under those Family Code provisions.

H.B. 1721 requires a court to render a protective order in the manner provided by those Family Code provisions if, in lieu of the finding that family violence occurred and is likely to occur in the future, the court finds that probable cause exists to believe that an offense of stalking occurred and that the nature of the scheme or course of conduct engaged in by the defendant in the commission of the offense indicates that the defendant is likely to engage in the future in conduct relating to that offense.

H.B. 1721 makes the procedure for the enforcement of a protective order under Family Code provisions relating to family violence, including provisions relating to findings, contents, duration, warning, delivery, law enforcement duties, and modification, apply to the fullest extent practicable to the enforcement of a stalking protective order under the bill's provisions.

H.B. 1721 makes a statement in a hearing on an application for a protective order for a victim of sexual assault that is made by a child younger than 14 years of age who is the victim of an offense of continuous sexual abuse of a young child or children, indecency with a child, sexual assault, or aggravated sexual assault, and that describes the offense committed against the child admissible as evidence in the same manner that a child's statement regarding alleged abuse against the child is admissible under Family Code provisions relating to the hearsay statement of a child abuse victim in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship.

H.B. 1721 provides that the bill's provision relating to a stalking protective order applies to the commission of an offense of stalking, without regard to whether the offense was committed before, on, or after the effective date of the bill.  

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.