Passed bills relating to sexual violence

Legislation that passed:

FCASV Top Priority Bill Passes
Victims of Sexual Battery Legal Rights and Services
SB 1312 by Sen. Mike Fasano (R-Port Richey)
HB 979 by Rep. Yolly Roberson (D-Miami)

Governor Crist signed SB 1312, FCASV's top priority bill for the 2009 session, into law during a signing ceremony on June 16. This legislation requires each law enforcement officer who investigates an alleged sexual battery incident to assist the victim in obtaining medical treatment if medical treatment is necessary, a forensic examination, and crisis intervention services from a certified rape crisis center. The legislation also requires law enforcement officers to immediately notify victims of the legal rights and remedies available by providing them with a brochure written and produced by the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence in conjunction with FDLE that includes information about local rape crisis services. This legislation takes effect on July 1, 2009.

In addition to our wonderful sponsors, special thanks are due to Ron Book, House Rules Chair Rep. Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton), and our co-sponsors (Senator Joyner and Representatives Brandenburg, Eisnaugle, Gibson, Homan, Jenne, Kiar, Porth, Snyder, Soto, and Williams) for their work to ensure passage of the bill on the last day of regular session.

The brochure associated with SB 1312 is now available through the FCASV and FDLE websites and is being emailed to rape crisis centers and law enforcement agencies across the state. Multiple copies of the brochure with community-specific information are being mailed to each rape crisis center. Rape crisis centers will be delivering these copies with information about their services to each law enforcement agency in their catchment area.

Legislature Honors Work of Rape Crisis Centers & FCASV
Sexual Assault Awareness Month Resolutions
HB 9127 by Rep. Audrey Gibson (D-Jacksonville)
SB 2772 by Sen. Mike Fasano (R-Port Richey)
These resolutions designated April 2009 as "Sexual Assault Awareness Month" in Florida, spoke to the impact of sexual violence on victims and families across Florida, and honored the work of Florida's rape crisis centers and the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence.

FCASV Designated a Member of New
Human Trafficking Task Force
SB 168 by Sen. Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa)
HB 811 by Rep. Geraldine Thompson (D-Orlando)
This legislation creates the Florida Statewide Task Force on Human Trafficking within the Florida Department of Children and Families. The task force will work on a strategic plan and prepare a report on the needs of human trafficking victims in Florida. The Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights is taking the lead on this project and both the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence and the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence are designated by the legislation as members of the task force. This bill took effect on June 1, 2009.

Parental Responsibility and Time-Sharing
SB 904 Sen. Ted Deutch (D-Delray Beach)
HB 0541 Rep. Jim Frishe (R-Pinellas)
This bill revises statutes relating to divorce and custody. Current law requires the court to consider the best interests of the child for a parenting plan and requires the court to consider evidence of domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, child abandonment, or child neglect when making that determination. Current law also creates a rebuttable presumption of detriment to a child if a parent has been convicted of a third-degree felony or higher involving domestic violence or certain sexual offenses. The bill lowers the threshold for the rebuttable presumption for domestic violence to a first-degree misdemeanor. Additionally, the bill amends the domestic violence injunction statute, permitting a court to create a temporary parenting plan, including a time-sharing schedule, that may award the petitioner with up to 100 percent time-sharing. The bill requires the court to specify in writing when it considers evidence of domestic violence, sexual violence, or child abuse, abandonment, or neglect in determining the best interests of the child. This legislation takes effect October 1, 2009.

Sexual Offenders and Predators
HB 115 by Rep. Martin Kiar (D-Parkland)
SB 340 by Sen. Jeremy Ring (D-Margate)
This legislation encourages all public libraries to implement an internet safety education program for children and adults and requires sexual offenders and predators to provide home telephone numbers and any cellular telephone numbers as part of the registration process. The bill takes effect July 1, 2009.

DNA Database
SB 2276 by Sen. Steve Oelrich (R-Gainesville)
HB 1151 by Rep. William Snyder (R-Stuart)
This legislation provides a phase-in schedule requiring persons arrested for specified felony offenses to provide DNA samples to the FDLE. It also provides for a statewide automated personal identification system capable of classifying, matching, and storing analyses of DNA and other data and authorizes the FDLE to adopt rules related to the implementation of the removal of DNA analyses and samples from the statewide DNA database. This bill takes effect July 1, 2009.

Children/Confidential Records
SB 126 by Sen. Paula Dockery (R-Lakeland)
HB 381 by Rep. Nick Thompson (R-Ft. Myers)
Although these bills passed separately, they contain many of the same provisions. The bills require that a case record for a child under the supervision of, or in the custody of, the Department of Children and Families be maintained in a complete and accurate manner, and be made available to the child and the child's guardian ad litem, attorney, or caregiver. The bills authorize a court to approve the release of confidential information contained in a case record if the court determines that the information is necessary to ensure access to appropriate services for the child or for the safety of the child.
Additionally, these bills authorize the sharing of confidential and exempt information among all state and local agencies and programs that provide services to children or are responsible for children's safety, if the information is reasonably necessary to assure access to services or safety of the child. These bills provide that records or information made confidential by federal law may not be shared. The bills specifically exclude information relating to clients and records of certified domestic violence centers from the sharing provision. HB 381 contains additional provisions relating to relative caretakers and children's initiatives. Both bills take effect on July 1, 2009.

Court Costs (Guardian ad Litem/Children's Advocacy Centers)
SB 526 by Sen. Evelyn Lynn (R-Daytona Beach)
HB 217 by Rep. Eric Eisnaugle (R-Orlando)
This legislation expands the list of crimes for which a court is required to impose an additional court cost for certain offenses against a minor and certain other offenses (selling or buying of minors into sex trafficking or prostitution; sale of harmful materials to minors or use of minors in production in harmful materials;
acts in connection with obscenity; transmission of material harmful to minors; use of drug paraphernalia; violations of the Florida Sexual Predators Act; etc.). The bill increases the amount of the court cost from $101 to $151 and directs $50 of the court cost to the Office of the Statewide Guardian Ad Litem and $100 to the Florida Network of Children's Advocacy Centers. The bill is estimated to raise an additional $96,122 each year and takes effect July 1, 2009.

State Court Funding
SB 2108 by Sen. Ken Pruitt (R-Port St. Lucie)
HB 1121 by Rep. Ellen Bogdanoff (R-Ft. Lauderdale)
This bill facilitates the transition from the current clerk budgeting processes to the legislative appropriation of funds for court-related functions of the clerks. The bill sets up procedures and a process for this transition. The bill redirects some of the filing fees collected and used by the clerks of court from various funds directly into a trust fund for the state courts system. In addition, some of the fines collected by the clerks of court are redirected from the trust fund for the state courts system to the General Revenue Fund. This bill took effect June 18, 2009.

State Court System
SB 1718 by Senator Victor Crist (R-Tampa)
This legislation includes many provisions relating to court filing fees and other matters. The bill increases the circuit civil filing fee from $295 to $395 and directs the increase to be deposited in the State Courts Revenue Trust Fund. Because all injunction statutes specifically state that, notwithstanding any other law, a filing fee cannot be charged for an injunction, petitioners for sexual, domestic, dating, and repeat violence injunctions cannot be charged a filing fee. The bill also relieves indigent persons from paying filing fees. FCASV, in collaboration with FCADV, was successful in defeating language in the House that would have created a filing fee for repeat violence injunctions. Such a fee would have put Florida's Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) funding in jeopardy. Some provisions of the bill took effect June 1, 2009, and others will take effect July 1, 2009.