By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A House panel endorsed a bill Tuesday to make committing financial identity fraud in the workplace a felony.
The House Judiciary Committee also recommended a bill to create a mandatory jail sentence for anyone convicted of fleeing in a vehicle and rejected a bill to provide funding for victim-witness coordinators.
The committee endorsed House Bill 2086 by Rep. Butch Wilkins, D-Bono, after hearing testimony in support of the measure by Fort Smith police detective Ron Scamardo.
Scamardo said western Arkansas has seen an increase in incidents of people obtaining employment by using other people’s names and Social Security numbers. Under current law, perpetrators can be charged with misdemeanor criminal impersonation, but a felony charge would give police greater arrest authority, he said.
“With a felony charge, I can go down to the place of employment and make a probable cause arrest,” Scamardo said.
Being able to make an arrest is important because the people who commit this type of offense often jump from job to job, repeatedly victimizing the people whose identities they have stolen, Scamardo said.
The perpetrators typically are in the country illegally, he said.
“So this is something we can do (about illegal immigration) that we don’t have to wait on the federal government for?” asked Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron.
“Correct,” Scamardo said.
The bill advances to the full House.
The committee also endorsed HB 1830, also by Wilkins, which would require anyone convicted of fleeing by means of a vehicle to serve a minimum of two days in jail.
Jonesboro police Lt. Scott Baxter testified that fleeing in a vehicle poses a significant danger to the public yet often is punished with no jail time.
“Where mainly this would apply would be during the plea-bargaining,” he said. “A majority of cases are pled out — they never even get before a judge — and a lot of times one of the conditions that the defense is trying to plead to is no jail time,” he said.
The committee rejected HB 2154 by Rep. Nathan George, D-Dardanelle, with 10 members voting for the bill and 10 against. The measure needed 11 votes to advance.
The bill would raise the fee bail bond companies are required to charge by $20 and direct the money to the state Prosecution Coordination Commission to pay salaries of prosecutors’ support staff. George said the money would pay for victim-witness coordinators.
The state already requires that $20 from the fee go to the state Public Defender Commission.
“There’s not a unified effort to help victims, and this is a step in the right direction,” said Lori Kumpuris of the Arkansas Prosecutor Coordinator’s Office.
Jim Ibison, owner of Bob Cole Bail Bonds of Fort Smith, testified that the bill would place an unfair burden on small businesses.
