LCO No. 5008 1 of 2
General Assembly Raised Bill No. 970
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 5008
Referred to Committee on JUDICIARY
Introduced by:
(JUD)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E CONFIDENTIALITY OF EVIDENCE
SEIZED IN A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of section 54-36a of the 1
general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu 2
thereof (Effective October 1, 2019): 3
(b) (1) Whenever property is seized in connection with a criminal 4
arrest or seized pursuant to a search warrant without an arrest, the law 5
enforcement agency seizing such property shall file, on forms 6
provided for this purpose by the Office of the Chief Court 7
Administrator, an inventory of the property seized. The inventory, 8
together with the uniform arrest report, in the case of an arrest, shall be 9
filed with the clerk of the court for the geographical area in which the 10
criminal offense is alleged to have been committed; except, when the 11
property is stolen property and, in the opinion of the law enforcement 12
officer, does not exceed one thousand dollars in value, or when an 13
attempt was made to steal the property but the property at all times 14
remained on the premises in a sealed container, the filing of an 15
LCO No. 5008 2 of 2
inventory shall not be required and such property may be returned to 16
the owner. In the case of property seized in connection with a search 17
warrant without an arrest, the inventory shall be attached to the 18
warrant and shall be filed with the clerk of the court for the 19
geographical area in which the search warrant was issued. If any 20
criminal proceeding is transferred to another court location, then the 21
clerk with whom the inventory is filed shall transfer such inventory to 22
the clerk of the court location to which such action is transferred. 23
Property seized in connection with a criminal arrest or seized pursuant 24
to a search warrant without an arrest shall not be subject to disclosure 25
under the Freedom of Information Act, as defined in section 1-200, 26
unless such property is filed in connection with, or introduced into 27
evidence at a criminal, civil or administration proceeding in the 28
Superior Court. 29
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2019 54-36a(b)(1)
Statement of Purpose:
To address an issue raised in Commissioner of Emergency Services and
Public Protection, et al. v. F.O.I. Commission, 330 Conn. 372 concerning
the disclosure of documents seized in a criminal investigation.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]