Senate Judiciary Committee advances package of criminal, civil and consumer-protection bills; porch‑piracy bill passes after earlier defeat

The Judiciary Committee - Senate met to consider a slate of criminal‑justice, consumer‑protection and civil‑procedure measures and voted to advance multiple bills, including amendments to the stalking statute, rules for returning property seized in investigations, and a higher felony classification for repeated ‘‘porch‑piracy’’ thefts after an earlier failed vote.

Why it matters: The committee moved bills that affect criminal penalties, how prosecutors hire and pay outside counsel, how victims recover property, licensing for private security and protections for children online. Several measures change statutory language and procedure used by prosecutors and law enforcement across Arkansas.

Senate bill 629 (self‑representation by LLC members in eviction cases) Senate bill 629, presented by Senator Caldwell, would allow a member of a closely held corporation or of an LLC to represent the business in local court eviction proceedings. Caldwell said the bill is narrowly limited to eviction proceedings and intended to restore a practice some landlords previously used. The committee voted to pass the bill. A sponsor asked for transparency after the state bar signaled it might oppose the measure; the chair said the request to delay was declined so the bill could be heard.

Stalking statute amendment (House Bill 17 78) Deputy prosecutor coordinator Laurie Campuris told the committee that House Bill 17 78 amends Arkansas Code § 5‑71‑229 (the stalking statute) to add conduct that places a person in imminent fear of unwanted sexual activity or sexual contact toward the person or a member of the person’s family or household as a form of stalking in the second degree. Campuris said the change is intended to cover situations where repeated communications — for example, threatening texts that reference a child — occur and prosecutors find existing statutes (terroristic threatening) harder to apply. Committee members asked about the required ‘‘course of conduct’’; Campuris confirmed stalking requires at least two acts separated by 36 hours and emphasized prosecutors need evidence to charge the offense. The committee passed the bill as amended.

Porch‑piracy penalty change (House Bill 17 79) Prosecuting attorney Daniel Shue (Sebastian County) described House Bill 17 79 as raising theft for ‘‘porch piracy’’ from a class D felony to a class C felony so that attempted thefts using ‘‘bait’’ packages can be charged at a higher level and make such stings more practical for law enforcement. Shue said law enforcement prefers higher classifications so police can deploy investigative resources when the attempted theft would otherwise be a misdemeanor. The bill initially failed in committee in an early vote (committee record: "only 4 votes"), but the sponsor reintroduced it later in the same session; after further discussion and an amendment naming another sponsor, the committee ultimately passed the bill as amended. Opponents warned higher classification could allow prison terms for low‑value incidents because the draft did not set a minimum dollar threshold; proponents said sentencing and guidelines make prison unlikely in many cases and framed the change as deterrence.

Return of seized property (House Bill 17 80) Prosecutor Tom Tatum presented House Bill 17 80. The bill creates a procedure for returning property seized during criminal investigations when the property is not needed for prosecution or charges are not filed. Tatum said an attorney general opinion had raised uncertainty about prosecutors’ authority to return items; the bill would allow a court order to return nonessential property to an owner. The committee passed the bill.

Attorney General civil‑penalty and outside‑counsel clarifications (House Bills 18 30 and 18 31) An attorney with the Attorney General’s Office, Alex Benton, explained related bills to clarify how the Office of the Attorney General (AG) handles civil penalties and computes fees for outside counsel in contingent civil enforcement cases. HB 18 30 repeals a small code section to let civil penalties be counted in the usual fee calculations the AG’s office uses when outside counsel front litigation costs on contingency. HB 18 31 clarifies that civil penalties from judgments may be used and reported the same way as settlement funds (including quarterly reporting to the ALC). The AG’s office said the bills do not increase recovery percentages or draw on general revenue; both bills passed.

Senate Bill 600 (forum/jurisdiction for certain low‑value real property purchases) Senator Clark Tucker described an amendment to Senate Bill 600 that requires the purchase and the dwelling unit to be in Arkansas for the law to apply — an accommodation for mobile homes moved out of state. The committee adopted the amendment and passed the bill as amended.

Licensing and training for private investigators and commissioned security officers (House Bill 16 92) Representative Matt Brown and Senator Jim Petty presented HB 16 92 on behalf of state police. The bill removes the term ‘‘moral turpitude’’ from licensing standards (aligning the statute with the legislature’s 2019 direction to avoid vague licensing criteria), clarifies that individuals who fail the required background check lose an exemption for installing security systems, aligns statutory refresher‑training timing with state police rules (annual refresher within a two‑year license period), and removes an administrative 30‑day local veto step that state police said often delayed licensing without adding disqualifying information. The committee passed the bill.

COPPA‑style privacy protections for ages 13–17 (House Bill 17 17) Representative Zach Gramlich presented House Bill 17 17, described as an expansion of federal COPPA‑style protections to cover minors aged 13–17. The bill would ban targeted advertising to minors, require clear notice of data collection practices, require verifiable consent for data collection, allow parents and teens to request deletion or access to collected data, and require reasonable security practices for children’s personal information. The sponsor said he had consulted stakeholders including technology and telecom companies and that similar proposals are under consideration in several other states; the committee passed the bill.

Criminal facilitation via communications device (House Bill 17 63) Representative Ken Underwood presented HB 17 63, a bill brought by a deputy prosecuting attorney that criminalizes use of a communication device to facilitate the sale of human beings, modeled on an existing statute that addresses communications‑device facilitation of narcotics sales. Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Sexton said the prosecutors’ association was briefed and did not oppose. The committee passed the bill.

Order‑of‑protection enhancement (House Bill 17 64) House Bill 17 64 sought to let convictions or equivalent orders from other jurisdictions be used to enhance penalties under Arkansas’s order‑of‑protection violation statute. The committee discussed redundancy with recently passed measures and whether similar language already appears in recent enactments. The bill did not pass in committee.

Uniform Trust Decanting Act (House Bill 17 49) Representative Matt Brown presented the Uniform Trust Decanting Act, a uniform law adopted in other states that provides statutory procedures for a trustee to ‘‘decant’’ assets from an irrevocable trust into a new trust under specified guardrails (notice to beneficiaries, court approval options). The committee passed the measure; the sponsor said it had come through the Arkansas Bar Association package and faced no opposition in his briefing.

Votes at a glance (committee record) - SB 629 (self‑representation by LLC members in eviction cases): Passed in committee (motion to pass; sponsor: Senator Caldwell). - HB 17 78 (stalking statute amendment, §5‑71‑229): Passed as amended (presented by Laurie Campuris on behalf of prosecutors). - HB 17 79 (porch‑piracy reclassification D→C felony): Initially failed in an early vote (committee noted "only 4 votes"), reintroduced and later passed as amended after additional discussion and sponsor changes (presented by Prosecutor Daniel Shue and Senator Matt McKee). - HB 17 80 (procedure to return property seized in investigations): Passed (presented by Tom Tatum). - HB 18 30 & HB 18 31 (AG outside‑counsel fee/civil‑penalty clarifications; ADTPA related): Both passed (presented by Attorney General office staff Alex Benton). - SB 600 (jurisdiction rule for low‑value real property/mobile homes): Amendment adopted; passed as amended (sponsor: Senator Clark Tucker). - HB 16 92 (private investigator and security licensing rules): Passed (presented by Representative Brown and Senator Petty). - HB 17 17 (COPPA‑style protections for ages 13–17): Passed (presented by Representative Zach Gramlich). - HB 17 63 (criminalizing use of communications device to facilitate trafficking in persons): Passed (presented by Representative Ken Underwood; Benton County prosecutor Brian Sexton at the table). - HB 17 64 (use of out‑of‑state orders for enhancement of protection‑order violations): Failed in committee. - HB 17 49 (Uniform Trust Decanting Act): Passed (presented by Representative Matt Brown).

What the committee did not decide or left open: several bills were discussed with technical questions (for example, whether certain definitions align with other pending bills and whether specific dollar thresholds or sentencing outcomes are appropriate). Committee members asked for clarifications about evidentiary burdens (stalking: the "course of conduct" requirement), sentencing application (porch piracy and the absence of a dollar‑value threshold), and administrative procedures (AG civil‑penalty reporting and security‑licensing background checks). Where committee members registered concerns (notably the initial opposition to raising the penalty for porch piracy), the record shows debate but no further amendments to impose a minimum dollar threshold.

The committee adjourned after completing the agenda and passing a majority of the items on the docket. Several sponsors asked for a "good vote" when closing their presentations; the chair noted the committee had run bills up to April 7 for members who were present to present.