Making Low Level Misdemeanors – Civil Infractions

 Driving a snowmobile without a registration and other low-level misdemeanors would become civil infractions under a “decriminalization” package the House Judiciary Committee started work on this week.

Failing to put plates on a vehicle when buying a new car, driving farm equipment on the road without proper registration, and failing to show a safety certificate when driving a boat would also be moved into civil infraction territory under the 19 bills.

Chair Graham FILLER (R-DeWitt) called the bills a “good continuation of the reforms that this committee has worked on.”

“If an individual from, say, Southfield is Up North snowmobiling and has the wrong registration and is given a misdemeanor ticket, he or she will have to come back Up North, show up to court and take the court’s time,” Filler said.

“Every misdemeanor has to go through a prosecutor and then it has to go through district court. Police officers have to come in. They have to testify. So on their days off, they have to come in and sit through the docket at a district court,” Rep. Mike MUELLER (R-Linden) explained.

Filler contended that such charges are likely to be pled down to civil infractions anyway.

Included in the package are  HB 5684 sponsored by Rep. John CHERRY (D-Flint);  HB 5685 by Rep. Tim SNELLER (D-Burton);  HB 5686 by Rep. Annette GLENN (R-Midland);  HB 5687,  HB 5689 and  HB 5693 by Rep. Beau LAFAVE (R-Iron Mountain);  HB 5688 and  HB 5690 by Rep. David LAGRAND (D-Grand Rapids);  HB 5691 by Filler;  HB 5692 by Rep. Gregory MARKKANEN (R-Hancock);  HB 5694 by Rep. Steven JOHNSON (R-Wayland);  HB 5695 and  HB 5802 by Mueller;  HB 5696 by Rep. Ronnie PETERSON (D-Ypsilanti);  HB 5697 and  HB 5804 by Rep. Gary HOWELL (R-North Branch);  HB 5698 and  HB 5803 by Rep. Kyra BOLDEN (D-Southfield); and  HB 5699 by Rep. Tenisha YANCEY (D-Harper Woods).

“Far too often we have too many people who are serving time in jails for simple, non-violent offenses, such as operating without a license,” Yancey said. Her bill would make operating without a license a civil infraction.

The most controversial bill in the package was Mueller’s  HB 5802, which would decriminalize “driving while license suspended” (DWLS), but not in all cases.

“If your license is suspended for drunk driving, reckless driving or any driving offense causing injury or death, it is still a misdemeanor offense. If your license is suspended for not paying child support or other crimes or not paying fines and costs, it would be a civil infraction,” Mueller explained .”It doesn’t tie the hands of law enforcement, because even if it is a civil infraction, the police officer can still impound the car.”

Mueller said it would reduce the number of people going to jail.

“I found, as a police officer, a lot of people get into a financial situation and they can’t drive. How are they supposed to get to work to pay their fines and costs if they can’t drive? If you take their license away for things that aren’t related to that, it just kind of puts them in a never-ending circle of not being able to pay off anything,” Mueller said.

Thomas BOYD, of the State Court Administrative Office, said he supports the bill in concept. Separating issues important to public safety from those issues that aren’t is the key, and he said he believes the package does that.

Boyd said data shows “jails are just clogged” with people coming in for DWLS and related issues.

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“What we need to do is stop taking away people’s licenses,” Boyd told the committee. “So we need to go into the public health code and when you’re a dentist who’s giving away too many prescriptions and you are convicted of prescription fraud, you shouldn’t lose your drivers license. That’s got nothing to do with driving. When you don’t pay a court fine, we should just not take away your drivers license. It’s got nothing to do with driving. If you are arrested for retail fraud and you fail to come to court, one of the things we are going to do is take away your drivers license. Why? It doesn’t affect good driving.”

Filler indicated the package will get some adjustments, and he promised it will come back for further testimony in a future meeting.

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