Committee hears bill to except behavioral-health patients from felony upcharge for assaulting health workers

The Community Safety, Justice & Reentry Committee heard testimony Feb. 3 on House Bill 1220, a measure that would create an exception to the third-degree assault felony enhancement for people who assault nurses, physicians or other health-care providers while they are detained, under evaluation for detention for behavioral-health disorders, detained for behavioral-health treatment, or receiving or seeking voluntary inpatient behavioral-health treatment.

The bill’s prime sponsor, Representative Daria Farovar, said the change is narrow and intended to address what she called a harmful pattern in which people in acute behavioral-health crisis are charged with higher-degree felonies and then diverted into competency restoration systems. "What we're trying to do with this bill is really take a scalpel to our assault 3 laws and take a narrow look at folks who we already know are not doing well," Representative Farovar said. She cited pre-pandemic data showing about 40% of people arrested on an assault-3 charge in a health-care setting later entered competency proceedings.

Supporters said the current felony upcharge…