STAND. COM. REP. NO. 901-04

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2294

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2294, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CRIMINAL TRESPASS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to protect public and private property from trespassers by:

(1) Applying the offense of criminal trespass in the second degree, a petty misdemeanor, to persons who enter or remain unlawfully on any public or private property after a reasonable warning or request to leave has been given by the owner or lessee of the property; and

(2) Amending from one year to "a specified period of time" the period during which a trespasser must stay off property after receiving a written warning to do so.

Hawaii Reserves, Inc., and a concerned individual testified in support of this bill. The Office of the Public Defender and Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance opposed this measure. The Honolulu Police Department opposed this bill as written and suggested amendments. The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu provided comments.

Your Committee finds that some homeless people set up illegal shelters on public beaches to the detriment of recreational users. However, there are no indications of a need to apply this bill's provisions to private property or to extend the warning period beyond one year.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Deleting the applicability of this measure to private property;

(2) Retaining the one-year period during which the warning remains valid; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style.

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. 2294, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2294, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

 

____________________________

ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair