Senate Bill No. 349
(By Senators Kessler, Mitchell and Burnette)
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[Introduced January 24, 2002; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend article eight-d, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section ten, relating to providing that in a criminal case involving the neglect, murder or sexual abuse of a child by a parent, guardian or custodian, the discovery requirements imposed on the department of health and human resources as part of a related civil abuse and neglect proceeding will be held in abeyance until the circuit judge hearing the criminal case has addressed discovery in the criminal case.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article eight-d, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section ten, to read as follows:

§61-8D-10. Discovery in a case of child neglect or abuse, or sexual abuse or exploitation, or murder of a child by a parent, guardian or custodian.

Where a criminal charge has been brought against a parent, guardian or custodian charging that person with child neglect resulting in injury or death of a child, murder of child by a parent, guardian or custodian, or sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian, the discovery requirements imposed on the department of health and human resources and the attorney for the department as part of any civil abuse and neglect proceeding filed pursuant to chapter forty-nine of this code are to be held in abeyance until such time as the circuit judge assigned to hear the criminal case has addressed discovery in the criminal case.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that in a criminal case involving the neglect, murder or sexual abuse of a child by a parent, guardian or custodian, the discovery requirements imposed on the department of health and human resources as part of a related civil abuse and neglect proceeding will be held in abeyance until the circuit judge hearing the criminal case has addressed discovery in the criminal case.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.