HB 23-RESTITUTION FOR CRIME VICTIMS  CHAIR SEEKINS announced CSHB 23(JUD), version \U, to be up for consideration. SENATOR THERRIAULT said with regard to the concern he expressed at a previous meeting, he understands the rationale between the two groups and is willing to go forward. CHAIR SEEKINS said he understands that this would allow non- profits to be able to collect for volunteer labor. For profit corporations are able to seek recovery for labor required to clean up after a crime, but a private individual would still not be able to collect for time volunteers might spend cleaning up after a crime. MS. LINDA SYLVESTER, staff to Representative Bruce Weyhrauch, said she would answer questions. SENATOR OGAN asked what they were trying to fix with this legislation. MS. SYLVESTER replied that the bill was written in response to an incident that happened in Juneau with the Alaska State Folk Festival when the treasurer embezzled funds. The case was prosecuted and the festival board and six volunteers spent over 200 hours providing evidence for the police department. During the restitution hearing the court determined that state law didn't clearly envision that the efforts of a volunteer board could be included in the restitution. SENATOR OGAN asked if the non-profit had recourse for damages in civil court. MS. SYLVESTER replied that they would have, but restitution is in a criminal proceeding and is an avenue that is available to a victim so that they can be made whole in an expedited way without going to civil court. CHAIR SEEKINS said it clarifies that these are not actual damages that have been paid to someone to perform auditing services to determine the amount of the embezzlement, but rather actual hours of time spent by volunteers. SENATOR OGAN said he is a little troubled by the direction the bill is going. He is concerned whether it is an appropriate role to award what would typically be a civil damage in a criminal case. SENATOR FRENCH said he shares that concern and he also has issues with how a court would value the services, especially in the folk festival case where they didn't spend any money. So the $5,000 they are getting is what you might call unjust enrichment. I think on balance, we should fall on the side of the non-profit. And, I think on balance, courts will be aware of where you can fairly assign a dollar value and where they can't. They'll deny a request in criminal court still leaving the victim free to run straight over to civil court and file a claim. I don't think anyone should look at this as a free for all for crime victims to get paid back because they never will be... CHAIR SEEKINS agreed with Senator French. SENATOR THERRIAULT said his concern is that they are carving the non-profits out for this little extra treatment that is not available to individual citizens. He then acknowledged that you have to recognize the good that non-profits provide in society. They're not going to be able to unfairly enrich themselves. I think the courts will step in and prevent that from happening. It doesn't guarantee them to be made whole, because a lot of times the individuals that perpetrate the crimes don't have the means... MS. SYLVESTER said this is okay because the people in the non- profits are not getting paid and it's difficult for a group to come up with a monetary award. Also, most often these situations are dealing with embezzlement and the way our criminal justice system is set up, they are not going to investigate and spend the time and effort reconstructing books that have been completely destroyed or don't exist. It's a similar situation to asking a rape victim to go out and hunt down the perpetrator and pay for the testing and then turn the situation over to the police. She said that narrowing this down to just non-profits corrected an indeterminate fiscal note to a zero fiscal note. That means that public defenders won't be involved in defending individual defendants from claims of many individuals. SENATOR OGAN said he is still concerned that this carved out special treatment for a group of people. SENATOR THERRIAULT made a motion to pass CSHB 23(JUD), version\U, from committee with individual recommendations. There was no objection and it was so ordered.