Kamala Harris - For California Attorney General 2010

DA Harris and Senator Alquist Champion New Statewide ID Theft Law

Measure Signed into Law Allows for Multi-Jurisdictional ID Theft Prosecution

SAN FRANCISCO - District Attorney Kamala D. Harris announced today the signing of Senate Bill 226 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday, August 6, 2009.

SB 226 provides that in cases where a defendant or defendants have committed identity theft against multiple victims in multiple counties, prosecutors would have the authority to try allthe                                                                                           

cases in one county. It also allows the jury to be presented with the facts of all the crimes committed by a particular defendant or group of defendants. The bill was introduced by State Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) and sponsored by San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris.

“California simply cannot afford to allow roving identity thieves to escape accountability, nor can our state incur the cost of repeatedly prosecuting ID thieves in multiple jurisdictions for the same underlying offense,” said District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. “SB 226 is both cost-efficient and better for public safety.”

Throughout California, identity thieves are increasingly engaged in sophisticated and complex schemes involving multiple victims in numerous counties. This allows offenders to escape prosecution because prosecutors can only pursue the crimes committed by identity thieves who go from county to county when those crimes involve only one victim or all of the victims are in one county. That means victims in other counties whose identities are stolen by the same scheme may never get restitution from the offender and often never see the thief brought to justice. Even if other counties wish to prosecute the same criminal scheme, the cost to the state’s criminal justice system and to each county in order to prosecute each case separately is enormous.

“Right now, we require that identity thieves be prosecuted in each county where an offense took place, even though the series of thefts were committed by the same person or group,” said Senator Elaine Alquist. “This is time consuming and costly for counties. By allowing prosecutors to consolidate these crimes, we save counties millions of dollars by ending unnecessary and duplicative prosecution. Even better, we more effectively put these identity thieves behind bars for the crimes they commit against innocent victims.”

SB 226 amends Penal Code § 786(b)(1,) related to jurisdiction in identity theft cases, to allow prosecutors to bundle all of the individual identity theft instances of one scheme together in one prosecution. This bill allows the case to follow the thief and not be prosecuted in a piecemeal fashion. Prosecutors will now be able to effectively protect every similarly situated victim whose information has been stolen and assets have been pillaged by roving identity thieves, regardless of the victims’ counties of residence.

“By signing this bill, we send a message to all potential identity thieves throughout the state of California that you will no longer be able to hide from the law,” said District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. “We will find you, we will stop you, and we will send you away."

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