GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

1989 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 290

HOUSE BILL 726

 

AN ACT TO MAKE TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS TO THE LAWS CONCERNING BENEFITS TO PRIVATE PERSONS ASSISTING LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS, INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT PROCEDURES, PROOF OF PRIOR MOTOR VEHICLE CONVICTIONS, AND COLLATERAL ATTACKS ON CONVICTIONS.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 15A-405 reads as rewritten:

"§ 15A-405.  Assistance to law-enforcement officers by private persons to effect arrest or prevent escape; benefits for private persons.

(a)       Assistance upon Request; Authority. - Private persons may assist law-enforcement officers in effecting arrests and preventing escapes from custody when requested to do so by the officer. When so requested, a private person has the same authority to effect an arrest or prevent escape from custody as the officer making the request. He does not incur civil or criminal liability for an invalid arrest unless he knows the arrest to be invalid. Nothing in this subsection constitutes justification for willful, malicious or criminally negligent conduct by such person which injures or endangers any person or property, nor shall it be construed to excuse or justify the use of unreasonable or excessive force.

(b)       Benefits to Private Persons. - A private person assisting a law-enforcement officer pursuant to subsection (a) is:

(1)       To be treated as a citizen duly deputized as a deputy by a sheriff or other law-enforcement officer in an emergency for  the purposes of G.S. 143-166(m) (Law-Enforcement Officers' Benefit and Retirement Fund);

(2)       Entitled to the same benefits as a 'law-enforcement officer' as that term is defined in G.S. 143-166.2(d) (Law-Enforcement Officers', Firemen's and Rescue Squad Workers' Death Benefit Act); and

(3)       To be treated as an employee of the employer of the law-enforcement officer within the meaning of G.S. 97-2(2) (Workers' Compensation Act).

The Governor and the Council of State are authorized to allocate funds from the Contingency and Emergency Fund for the payment of benefits under subdivisions (1) and subdivision (3) when no other source is available for the payment of such benefits and when they determine that such allocation is necessary and appropriate."

Sec. 2.  G.S. 15A-534.1 reads as rewritten:

"§ 15A-534.1.  Crimes of domestic violence; bail and pretrial release.

In all cases in which the defendant is charged with assault on or communicating a threat to a spouse or former spouse or a person  with whom the defendant lives or has lived as if married, with domestic criminal trespass, or with violation of an order entered pursuant to Chapter 50B, Domestic Violence, of the General Statutes, the following provisions shall apply in addition to the provisions of G.S. 15A-534:

(1)       Upon a determination by the judicial official that the immediate release of the defendant will pose a danger of injury to the alleged victim or to any other person or is likely to result in intimidation of the alleged victim and upon a determination that the execution of an appearance bond as required by G.S. 15A-534 will not reasonably assure that such injury or intimidation will not occur, a judicial official may retain the defendant in custody for a reasonable period of time while determining the conditions of pretrial release.

(2)       A judicial official may impose the following conditions on pretrial release:

a.         That the defendant stay away from the home, school, business or place of employment of the alleged victim;

b.         That the defendant refrain from assaulting, beating, molesting, or wounding the alleged victim;

c.         That the defendant refrain from removing, damaging or injuring specifically identified property;

d.         That the defendant may visit his or her child or children  at times and places provided by the terms of any existing order entered by a judge.

The conditions set forth above may be imposed in addition to requiring that the defendant execute a secured appearance bond.

(3)       Should the defendant be an inebriate, mentally ill or imminently dangerous to himself or others the provisions of Article 5A of Chapter 122 'Involuntary Commitment' shall apply mentally ill and dangerous to himself or others or a substance abuser and dangerous to himself or others, the provisions of Article 5 of Chapter 122C of the General Statutes shall apply."

Sec. 3.  G.S. 15A-924(d) reads as rewritten:

"(d)      In alleging and proving a prior conviction, it is sufficient to state that the defendant was at a certain time and place convicted of the previous offense, without otherwise fully alleging all the elements. A duly certified transcript of the record of a prior conviction is, upon proof of the identity of the person of the defendant, sufficient evidence of a prior conviction. If the surname of a defendant charged is identical to the surname of a defendant previously convicted and there is identity with respect to one given name, or two initials, or two initials corresponding with the first letters of given names, between the two defendants, and there is no evidence that would indicate the two defendants are not one and the same, the identity of name is prima facie evidence that the two defendants are the same person. Proof of previous convictions under G.S. 20-138 and 20-139 may be made in accordance with G.S. 8-35.1."

Sec. 4.  G.S. 15A-1027 reads as rewritten:

"§ 15A-1027.  Limitation on collateral attack on conviction.

Noncompliance with the procedures of this Article may not be a basis for review of a conviction after the appeal period for the  conviction has expired, unless the review is expressly authorized by G.S. 15-217. expired."

Sec. 5.  This act is effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 12th day of June, 1989.