This bill amends evidence and reporting procedures that occur after a sexual offense is committed.
This bill:
- defines terms;
- amends injury reporting requirements for a health care provider for certain sexual offenses;
- allows certain victims of a sexual offense the option of:
receiving medical treatment, without any report of the sexual offense to law enforcement;with or without medical treatment, providing either a full report or a limited report of the sexual offense to law enforcement;allowing evidence collection for the sexual offense, including a sexual assault medical forensic examination that collects a sexual assault kit; anddesignating the sexual assault kit as either an unrestricted kit with full disclosure and processing or as a restricted kit that can either be stored without testing or subjected to limited testing;
- requires limited victim information to be shared with law enforcement with a restricted kit;
- requires that payment of costs for medical treatment and evidence collection for a victim of a sexual offense be the same regardless of whether the victim opts to make a full or limited report to law enforcement or if the victim opts only for medical treatment without reporting the sexual offense to law enforcement;
- requires the Bureau of Forensic Services to conduct testing of certain restricted kits;
- requires the Department of Public Safety's statewide sexual assault kit tracking system to provide limited access to a victim who has submitted a restricted kit for forensic testing to track the kit's processing status;
- establishes procedures for contacting a victim through a victim advocate to request the victim's consent to certain disclosures if a law enforcement agency determines that:there may be a serial sexual offender in a particular area; and evidence in the victim's restricted kit may provide relevant evidence in the investigation;
- revises and reorganizes statutory procedures and requirements that occur after certain sexual offenses are committed;
- amends provisions to provide for a reparations award for a victim of a sexual assault under certain circumstances;
- amends the definition of "sexual offense" for certain sexual offense procedures and victim rights provisions;
- inserts the former definition of "sexual offense" into statutes that had relied on the definition of "sexual offense" that this bill amends; and
- makes technical and conforming changes.Statutes affected:
Introduced: 26B-8-232, 53-10-904, 53-10-909, 53-10-910, 63M-7-502, 63M-7-509, 77-37-2, 77-37-3, 78A-6-104, 80-4-301, 81-9-204, 81-9-305