Provides immunity from prosecution for certain individuals engaged in prostitution who are victims of or witnesses to a crime and who report such crime or assist in the investigation or prosecution.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1966
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 17, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to individuals engaged in
prostitution who are victims of or witnesses to a crime
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 230.45 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 230.45 Immunity from prosecution.
4 This section applies where a person is the victim of or a witness to a
5 crime (including an individual who becomes aware that another person is
6 a victim of a crime), and has engaged or is alleged to have engaged in
7 an act prohibited under section 230.00, 230.03, or 230.40 of this chap-
8 ter at or in reasonable proximity to the time of the crime or under
9 circumstances reasonably related to the crime, and, in good faith, (a)
10 reports the crime to a criminal law enforcement agency, (b) seeks or
11 receives health care services as a result of the crime, or (c) assists
12 or attempts to assist in the investigation or prosecution of the crime.
13 No such victim or witness to the crime shall be charged or prosecuted
14 for the offense under section 230.00, 230.03, or 230.40 of this chapter.
15 As used in this section, "crime" shall include an act that reasonably
16 appears to be a crime, regardless of whether it results in a conviction
17 as a crime.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
19 have become a law, and shall apply to any prosecution pending on or
20 after the time it shall take effect.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05238-01-3
