Senate Bill No. 202

(By Senators Craigo, Wooton and Rowe)

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[Introduced January 14, 2002; referred to the Committee

on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section ten, article two-a, chapter forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to requiring law-enforcement agencies to open an official investigation when a person is reported missing who had earlier been awarded a protective order or was otherwise protected by the protective provisions of a domestic violence protective order; requiring law-enforcement agencies to open an official investigation when a person submits an affidavit that a missing person had previously been threatened or abused by another person; and providing for a criminal penalty for submitting a false affidavit.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section ten, article two-a, chapter forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE.

§48-2A-10. Filing of orders with law-enforcement agency; requirement to institute investigation when missing person reported.

(a) Upon entry of an order pursuant to section five or six of this article, or an order entered pursuant to section thirteen, article two of this chapter granting relief provided for by this article, a copy of the order shall, no later than the close of the next business day, be transmitted by the court or the clerk of the court to a local office of the city police, the county sheriff and the West Virginia state police, where it shall be placed in a confidential file, with access provided only to the law-enforcement agency and the respondent named on the order. A sworn affidavit may be executed by a party who has been awarded exclusive possession of the residence or household, pursuant to an order entered under subsection (b), section six of this article, and shall be delivered to such law-enforcement agencies simultaneously with any order, giving his or her the party's consent for a law-enforcement officer to enter the residence or household, without a warrant, to enforce the protective order or temporary order. Orders shall be promptly served upon the respondent. Failure to serve a protective order does not stay the effect of a valid order if the respondent has actual notice of the existence and contents of the order.
(b) After an order has been transmitted to the law- enforcement agencies as provided for in subsection (a) of this section and notwithstanding whether it has expired or remains in force, in the event any person that was intended to be protected by the order is reported missing, or upon the affidavit of another person setting forth personal knowledge of circumstances involving threatening or abusive behavior by a person toward the person reported as missing, the applicable law-enforcement agency or agencies shall immediately institute an official criminal investigation to determine the whereabouts of the person reported missing and whether any crime has been committed in relation to the missing person. For the sake of efficient use of law-enforcement resources, the respective law-enforcement agencies involved, if more than one, may agree to designate one particular agency to take primary responsibility for the investigation. In any event, when more than one law-enforcement agency is involved, all agencies shall cooperate to the minimum extent of sharing information and providing other reasonable assistance when requested to do so. Upon institution of the investigation, the law-enforcement agency or agencies shall:
(1) Immediately investigate to determine the present location of the person if it determines that the person is or may be in danger;
(2) Enter the name of the missing person into the national crime information center's missing person file, if the person meets the center's criteria, with all available identifying features, including dental records, fingerprints, other physical characteristics and a description of the clothing worn when the missing person was last seen;
(3) Obtain information not immediately available as soon as possible and enter it into the national crime information center's file as a supplement to the original entry; and
(4) Attempt to interview the person against whom the protective order was issued or the person who, as alleged by the affiant, engaged in threatening or abusive behavior toward the missing person, whichever the case may be.
(c) Any person who intentionally submits a false affidavit under the provisions of subsection (b) of this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in a correctional facility for one to three years or fined not less than one thousand dollars nor more than five thousand dollars, or both fined and imprisoned.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require law- enforcement agencies to open an official criminal investigation when a person is reported missing that had earlier been awarded a protective order pursuant to a domestic violence petition. The bill also provides that police start an investigation upon presentation of an affidavit that the missing person had previously been threatened or abused by another person. Finally, it prescribes a severe criminal penalty for submitting a false affidavit to police in order to require them to institute an official investigation.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.