WeVote
Log In

Bill

Bill

A 2378

Enacts the regional broadband expansion and access program act

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Joe Angelino and 21 co-sponsors

The bill raises penalties for assaults on protected public-safety personnel and requires testing for communicable diseases in cases involving bodily fluids.

REFERRED TO CORPORATIONS, AUTHORITIES AND COMMISSIONS
0
WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · A 2378

Summary — A2378 (as reported/amended)

Note on title: The bill header provided references a broadband program, but the legislative text and committee/fiscal documents supplied concern criminal-law changes. This summary reflects the actual bill text and reports, which amend assault statutes and require communicable-disease testing in certain assault cases.

Main purpose

A2378 (with committee amendments) raises penalties for certain assaults on public safety and emergency personnel and establishes procedures requiring persons charged with assaults involving bodily fluids to provide biological samples for communicable‑disease testing (by consent or court warrant). The aim is to increase criminal penalties when victims—such as law enforcement officers or firefighters—suffer serious bodily injury, and to provide testing and disclosure of communicable‑disease results to at‑risk victims.

Key provisions and changes

  • Upgrades certain assault offenses to a second‑degree crime (punishable by 5–10 years imprisonment, fine up to $150,000, or both) when the assault against a protected person results in serious bodily injury (defined under current law as risk of death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss/impairment).
  • Protected persons expanded/clarified to include: law enforcement officers, Department of Corrections staff and correctional officers, county/juvenile corrections staff, probation officers, sheriffs, court service officers, paid/volunteer firefighters, persons engaged in emergency first‑aid or medical services, school staff, certain utility/cable workers, and health‑care workers.
  • A conviction for assaulting a protected officer does not merge with other offenses.
  • Pretrial Intervention: a person charged with second‑degree assault on a law enforcement officer that results in serious bodily injury is ineligible for Pretrial Intervention.
  • No Early Release Act (NERA): mandatory NERA term would not apply to second‑degree assaults on officers except when the assault resulted in serious bodily injury.
  • Assault with bodily fluids: upgraded to second degree if the victim (from the specified protected classes) suffers serious bodily injury.
  • Testing requirement: any person charged with assault involving bodily fluids must provide a blood or other biological sample for communicable‑disease testing at a Department of Health‑licensed clinical laboratory — either by consent or pursuant to a Superior Court warrant.
    • Court must issue a warrant upon probable cause that the charged person’s fluid contacted a victim and the victim is at risk of transmission.
    • Positive test results must be shared with the assault victim.
    • Samples taken under the warrant may only be used for communicable‑disease testing; a separate warrant is required for other investigatory uses.
    • Samples must be destroyed after testing (per committee/appropriations amendments).

Who is affected

  • Defendants charged with relevant assault offenses (subject to enhanced penalties and testing).
  • Victims in the named classes (law enforcement, fire, EMS, court services, corrections, health care, school staff, utility workers).
  • State and local criminal justice and health agencies: Department of Law & Public Safety, county prosecutors, Judiciary, Office of the Public Defender, Department of Corrections, State Parole Board, Department of Health, and local governments (incarceration, prosecution, and testing impacts).

Fiscal and operational impact

  • Office of Legislative Services estimates indeterminate increases in annual State (and local) expenditures and indeterminate revenue increases from fines.
  • Drivers of cost: more incarcerations/longer sentences (DOC average annual cost cited ~$75,574; average daily cost ~$207), increased prosecution and defense caseloads, parole supervision, judiciary workload, and costs of clinical laboratory testing (OLS notes DOC reported 128 assaults involving bodily fluids in 2021 as context).
  • Testing cost allocation is unspecified; OLS cannot determine how many tests would be required or who would pay.

Legislative status and timeline

  • Introduced: January 9, 2024.
  • Reported with committee amendments by Assembly Public Safety & Preparedness: Sept. 12, 2024.
  • Reported by Assembly Appropriations (1R) with further amendments: Sept. 23, 2024.
  • Substituted by S3201 (2R): Sept. 26, 2024.
  • Referred to Corporations, Authorities and Commissions: Jan. 16, 2025.
  • Companion: S3201; bill text as amended is identical to that Senate measure.

(For legal application, consult the bill text and later legislative actions for any further amendments or enactment.)

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

Sign in to ask a question.