STAND. COM. REP. NO. 905

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 1379
                                        S.D. 2




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No.
1379, S.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CRIMINAL ASSAULTS AND RELATED
     OFFENSES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill, as received by your Committee, is
to classify assault against a law enforcement officer as a class
C felony.  This measure also classifies terroristic threatening
against a law enforcement officer as terroristic threatening in
the first degree.

     Your Committee finds that under existing law, assaulting a
correctional worker or educational worker who is engaged in the
performance of the worker's duties is a class C felony.  Your
Committee agrees that the intent of these laws was to deter the
rising number of assaults committed against correctional officers
in correctional facilities, and to provide additional protection
for educational workers in the classrooms.   Your Committee
further finds that in 1997, 359 cases of assault against police
officers were filed, which under existing law is a misdemeanor.
Your Committee believes that an enhanced offense for the assault
of a police office may act as a deterrent to suspects who might
otherwise escalate encounters with police officers into physical
confrontations.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the
Department of the Attorney General, the Department of Public

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 905
                                   Page 2


Safety, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City
and County of Honolulu, the Department of the Prosecuting
Attorney of the County of Maui, the Honolulu Police Department,
the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, the
Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the County of
Hawaii Police Department.  Testimony in opposition to this
measure was submitted by the Office of the Public Defender.

     Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this
measure by:

     (1)  Creating a new offense of assault against a police
          officer in the first degree, providing that a person
          could be charged with a class C felony if the person
          intentionally or knowingly causes bodily injury to a
          police officer while that officer is engaged in the
          performance of duty; and

     (2)  Reclassifying the current offense of assault against a
          police officer, section 707-712.5, Hawaii Revised
          Statutes, to make this an assault against a police
          officer in the second degree.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
1379, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1379, S.D.
2.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Judiciary,



                                   ______________________________
                                   AVERY B. CHUMBLEY, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   MATTHEW M. MATSUNAGA, Co-Chair

 
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