HP0399
LD 521
First Regular Session - 123rd Legislature - Text: MS-Word, RTF or PDF LR 640
Item 2
Bill Tracking Chamber Status

Amend the bill by striking out all of sections 7 and 8 and inserting the following:

Sec. 7. 17-A MRSA §303,  as amended by PL 1981, c. 669, §§1 to 3, is further amended to read:

§ 303. Criminal restraint by parent

1.    A person is guilty of criminal restraint by a parent if, being the parent of a child under the age of 16, and knowing he the person has no legal right to do so, he the person takes, retains or entices the child:
A.  Takes, retains or entices the child Who has not in fact attained 16 years of age, from the custody of his the child's other parent, guardian or other lawful custodian with the intent to remove the child from the State or to secrete him the child and hold him the child in a place where he the child is not likely to be found ; or . Violation of this paragraph is a Class C crime;
B.  Takes, retains or entices the child Who resides in another state and who has not in fact attained 16 years of age, from the custody of his the child's other parent, guardian or other lawful custodian, whose custodial authority was established by a court of this State, in the state in which the child is residing with his legal custodian with the intent to remove the child from that state or to secrete him the child and hold him the child in a place where he the child is not likely to be found. Violation of this paragraph is a Class C crime; or
C Who is either 16 or 17 years of age, from the custody of the Department of Corrections or the Department of Health and Human Services with the intent to remove the child from the State or to secrete the child and hold the child in a place where the child is not likely to be found. Violation of this paragraph is a Class D crime.
2.    Consent by the person child taken, enticed or retained is not a defense under this section.
3.    A law enforcement officer shall may not be held liable for taking physical custody of a child whom he who the officer reasonably believes has been taken, retained or enticed in violation of this section and for delivering the child to a person whom he who the officer reasonably believes is the child's lawful custodian or to any other suitable person.

For purposes of this subsection, "reasonable belief a child has been taken, retained or enticed in violation of this section" includes, but is not limited to, a determination by a law enforcement officer, based on his the officer's review of the terms of a certified copy of the most recent court decree granting custody of the child, that the parent who is exercising control over the child is not the person authorized to have custody under terms of the decree.

4.    A law enforcement officer may arrest without a warrant any person who he the officer has probable cause to believe has violated or is violating this section.
5   Criminal restraint by parent is a Class C crime.

summary

This amendment strikes section 7 from the bill, which raised constitutional issues, as it would have required that a juvenile who receives a suspended order of commitment to a juvenile facility and commits a probation violation shortly before the end of the commitment period be required to receive a commitment of at least one year. The amendment also amends section 8 of the bill by redrafting the crime of criminal restraint by a parent to add a new Class D form of the crime that addresses criminal restraint by a noncustodial parent of a child either 16 or 17 years of age whose lawful custodian is the Department of Corrections or the Department of Health and Human Services. The amendment also makes additional technical drafting changes to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 17-A, section 303.


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