SB 187-CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION: MISCONDUCT, RLS  1:39:01 PM CHAIR KELLER announced that the next order of business would be CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 187(JUD)(title am), "An Act relating to the crime of misconduct involving confidential information in the first degree; amending Rule 16, Alaska Rules of Criminal Procedure; amending Rule 8, Alaska Child in Need of Aid Rules; and providing for an effective date." The committee took an at-ease from 1:39 p.m. to 1:42 p.m. 1:42:26 PM RYNNIEVA MOSS, Staff to Senator John Coghill, Alaska State Legislature, said the conceptual amendment just reverses statutes on page 4-5 to make it clearer. She said the amendment inserts "limitation of disclosure of certain recorded images and records that are also evidence under AS11.41.410-11.41.450." And beginning on page 4, line 31, the following is deleted: "there is also evidence for investigation under AS 11.41.410- 11.41.450." This was a recommendation from legal services to clarify that everything in subsection (j) applied to the criminal codes, she explained. 1:43:35 PM MS. MOSS said Representative Gruenberg had brought up a good point about using the word "physician." The intent was to give access to medical records to physicians, but after conferring with others, "physician" was replaced with "healthcare provider" on page 5, line 28. The committee took an at-ease from 1:44 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. 1:45:56 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to adopt Amendment 1, labeled 28- LS1145\P.1, Strasbaugh, 4/9/14, as follows [original punctuation provided]: Page 5, line 28: Delete "physician" Insert "health care provider" Page 5, line 28, following "child.": Insert "In this subsection, "health care provider" includes a physician, dentist, physician assistant, nurse, nurse practitioner, psychologist, counselor, marital and family therapist, village or community health aide, community health worker, or another person that provides health care treatment in the course and scope of the person's employment." CHAIR KELLER objected. 1:46:30 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said that the term "includes" on line 6 is defined in Title 1 to mean "included but not limited." MS. MOSS said she agreed with that definition. CHAIR KELLER removed his objection. Hearing no further objections, Amendment 1 was adopted. 1:47:13 PM JAN RUTHERDALE, Chair, Children's Justice Act Task Force, Department of Health and Social Services, said the function of the Children's Justice Act Task Force is to make recommendations that improve the response to child maltreatment, and last fall the task force drafted legislation that led to SB 187. She said the group is grateful to Senator Coghill for carrying it through, and she told committee members that they have documents from a "Lunch and Learn" presentation done by the taskforce in February. She expressed a concern regarding pages 4 and 5 [of SB 187] over whether the language only offers protections in cases where there is also evidence for an investigation under a criminal prosecution. She pointed out that sometimes a child has been abused and there is an examination and photos taken, but it ends up being a child-in-need-of-aid (CINA) case rather than a criminal prosecution. The same danger could happen with videos posted online, she said, and "I don't want that to be the effect, where there's a whole class of victims that have the potential of being re-victimized." She said she cannot think of a sexual abuse investigation that would not initially involve the police, so if the law is read in that way, "we are perfectly happy with this, but I just don't want to leave out a class of victims." Otherwise, she said, the task force supports the bill and the changes. 1:50:38 PM CHAIR KELLER suggested that the sponsor write a letter of explanation [to address the above concern]. MS. MOSS said, "They were trying to word it so that everything in that paragraph applied to CINA cases and to criminal cases." There was concern that only the first sentence would apply to CINA and not the other two sentences. "They wanted to be inclusive," she added, and she offered to get an explanation from Legislative Legal Services. 1:51:47 PM CHAIR KELLER asked if that was the intent of the sponsor to make sure that CINA cases are covered, and "you believe that that's what legal services has done?" MS. MOSS said yes. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said he wants to be sure that it is crystal clear so that no one has to come back to an obscure House Judiciary hearing to sort it out. 1:52:43 PM EMILY WRIGHT, Assistant Attorney General, Alaska Department of Law (DOL), Child Protection Section, said current CINA statutes have a huge amount of confidentiality language built in; there are a lot of protections already. She said line 31 [of SB 187] references AS 47.10.011, which lists all the reasons that a child could be a child in need of aid. She continued: If the committee would like to reference sexual abuse and sexual abuse statutes for child-in-need-of-aid cases, you could add a reference to the subsection which specifically deals with sexual abuse and sexual assault, which is [paragraph] (7), and then you would also have the reference to the criminal case, if there is a criminal case, and that way you could cover both sexual assault-sexual abuse of a minor cases in a CINA proceeding, as well as if there's a criminal proceeding. 1:54:04 PM CHAIR KELLER asked if there would be a danger of narrowing it to the point that it increases the risk. MS. WRIGHT said it would narrow it to sexual abuse and sexual abuse of minor cases, but her understanding was that that was the point of the bill, to deal with sexual abuse of minors. The DOL position would be that there are ample protections under CINA statutes in the rest of the realm, she stated. CHAIR KELLER clarified that a conceptual amendment would just add (7) on page 4, line 31, to read: AS 47.10.011(7). 1:55:11 PM MS. WRIGHT pointed out that the next reference to the statute, AS 47.14.300, is the multidisciplinary team, so "that clearly references all of the CINA sexual abuse statutes." MS. MOSS said, "We introduced this bill at the recommendation of the Child Justice Task Force, and we've been working with the Department of Law, with Jan Rutherdale, with the task force, and with our legal department to try to get this right, and I thought we had it right." 1:56:32 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said he sees "two potential differences in here," and he wants to be sure that the bill accomplishes what everyone wants it to accomplish. He asked if the bill can be put at the bottom of the calendar to "let these guys talk and see if they want to make a suggestion, and then they can come back in a few minutes, because I don't want you to be stuck with the wrong thing." CHAIR KELLER said that is a very good suggestion, and he will do so. [SB 187 was set aside and taken up later in this hearing.] 1:57:42 PM SB 187-CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION: MISCONDUCT, RLS  2:25:12 PM CHAIR KELLER announced that the next order of business would be the CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 187(JUD)(title am), "An Act relating to the crime of misconduct involving confidential information in the first degree; amending Rule 16, Alaska Rules of Criminal Procedure; amending Rule 8, Alaska Child in Need of Aid Rules; and providing for an effective date." [The bill was heard earlier in this hearing.] The committee took an at-ease from 2:26 p.m. to 2:31 p.m. 2:31:24 PM RYNNIEVA MOSS, Staff to Senator John Coghill, Alaska State Legislature, said she met with others and is happy with the bill as it is. Quinlan [Steiner of Public Defender Agency] was the person who recommended the amendment that the committee passed last time, which, she said: added to line 30, on page 4, the language that limitations on disclosure of certain recordings, images, and records that are also evidence for an investigation under AS 11.41.410 through 11.41.450. MS. MOSS said that Rule 8 is a rule of CINA [Child in Need of Aid], which already is very confidential, as the committee knows through the years of passing legislation tightening up confidentiality, "but this adds some subsections to Rule 8 that relate to criminal investigations." So, she said, Jan Rutherdale, Children's Justice Act Task Force, and Emily Wright, Assistant Attorney General, have looked at the bill and agree with the language. Ms. Wright had previously mentioned adding [paragraph] (7) but was not saying that it needed to be added, because that would narrow the statute. "So we like it the way it is," she concluded. 2:32:17 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said that Ms. Moss has referred to language that is not in his version of the bill. MS. MOSS said, "That is the amendment. I'm reading it as you amended it at the last meeting." CHAIR KELLER said Amendment 1, labeled P.1, has been adopted, and that is what is being referenced. 2:33:25 PM MS. MOSS said she is reading that section as it was amended with the conceptual amendment at the last meeting. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said, "This is Conceptual Amendment 1 by Lynn, adopted without objection. That's what you're referring to, because they didn't reprint Version P." He said he understands. 2:34:13 PM CHAIR KELLER closed public testimony. REPRESENTATIVE LYNN moved to report CSSB 187(JUD), labeled 28- LS1145\P, as amended, out of committee with individual recommendations and the updated fiscal notes. Hearing no objections, HCS CSSB 187(JUD) passed out of committee. 2:35:01 PM The committee took an at-ease from 2:35 p.m. to 2:36 p.m.