Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 607 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide that an individual commits the felony offense of theft in the second degree if the individual is arrested with stolen property belonging to three or more persons regardless of the value of the stolen property.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, the Honolulu Police Department, the County of Hawaii Police Department, the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney for the County of Kauai, the Maui County Police Department, and the Hawaii Visitor Industry Security Association. Testimony in opposition to the measure was submitted by the Office of the Public Defender, the Community Alliance on Prisons, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that this measure is designed to address situations where an individual is arrested and has in his or her possession items that belong to three or more individuals, but collectively these items do not meet the $300 threshold value required to qualify for felony theft. This offense would apply to situations arising in the context of identity theft where a defendant may have in his or her possession mail or other identifying documents belonging to three or more individuals as well as thefts of multiple items from several individuals regardless of the value of these items.

Your Committee has amended this measure by requiring that the theft of these items be carried out as part of a common scheme or plan. This not only provides a temporal relationship between the acts of the defendant, but also demonstrates the intent of the defendant to commit multiple thefts against more than one individual.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 607, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 607, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.