San Francisco Citizen

Last year’s rape case at Richmond High School in the City of Richmond, CA is getting some attention from the solons of Sacramento.

Item 1: Senator Leland Yee doesn’t cotton to the idea of people just standing around when 16-year-olds get raped, so he authored Senate Bill 840. It requires:

“individuals who reasonably believe that they have witnessed a murder, rape or lewd or lascivious act with a child under the age of 18 years to notify law enforcement officials.”  

Basically, SB840 would update the David Cash Jr. Law, aka the Sherrie Iverson Child Victim Protection Act that was authored by former Senator, current Assemblyman, and future Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. Tom’s law already covers victims aged up to 14 years - Leland’s proposed law would add in victims aged 15 through 18. 

The California Senate’s Assistant President pro Tempore at the helm in Sacramento:

Here’s a brief rundown on non-Samaritan poster-boy David Cash, from Wiki’s entry on murderer Jerry Strohmeyer:

“Sherrice Iverson’s mother demanded that David Cash, Jr., be charged as an accessory, but authorities stated there was not enough evidence connecting him to the actual crime, and Cash was never prosecuted for any offense related to the murder. In the weeks following Strohmeyer’s arrest, Cash told the Los Angeles Timesthat he did not dwell on the murder of Sherrice Iverson. “I’m not going to get upset over somebody else’s life. I just worry about myself first. I’m not going to lose sleep over somebody else’s problems.” He also told the newspaper that the publicity surrounding the case had made it easier for him to “score with women.” Cash also told the Long Beach Press-Telegram: “I’m no idiot … I’ll get my money out of this.”

So that’s Item 1.

Item 2: Assemblyman Pedro Nava has authored AB 984, which would cover victims of any age.

So, those are California’s proposed witness crime reporting bills of 2010, so far.

Here’s Senator Yee’s release from this morning, after the jump

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