HB 2347 Virginia House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

Limitation of prosecutions; false entries or destruction of records by officers.

Summary

Limitation of prosecutions; false entries or destruction of records by officers. Extends the statute of limitations for prosecution of the offense of false entries or destruction of records by officers to within (i) five years of the commission of the offense or (ii) two years after the existence of the illegal act and the identity of the offender are discovered by the Commonwealth, whichever is later. The current statute of limitations is one year from the date of the offense.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 8, 2025 Last action Feb 4, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → HCJ Sub: Criminal Substitute · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended from an introduced version to a substitute version by the House Committee for Courts of Justice. The primary substantive change is the addition of § 18.2-472, which defines the crime of false entries or destruction of records by public officers as a Class 1 misdemeanor. The scope of the bill was expanded to include amendments to both § 18.2-472 and § 19.2-8, whereas the original bill only addressed § 19.2-8. All other content regarding limitation of prosecutions for various offenses remains unchanged.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to include amendments to § 18.2-472 (false entries or destruction of records by officers) in addition to the original § 19.2-8 (limitation of prosecutions).

REQUIREMENT

Added § 18.2-472, which establishes that clerks, public officers, or employees who fraudulently make false entries, erase, alter, secrete, or destroy official records commit a Class 1 misdemeanor and forfeit their office or employment.

SCOPE

The bill now amends two code sections (§§ 18.2-472 and 19.2-8) instead of one (§ 19.2-8), expanding the legislative changes to include criminal penalties for record falsification by public officers.

TECHNICAL

The document format changed from an introduced bill to a substitute amendment with committee markup, including page numbers and draft headers, but the substantive text of § 19.2-8 remained identical.

Floor votes

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Jan 22, 2025

Lower · Passed

Subcommittee recommends laying on the table (5-Y 3-N)

lower

Jan 21, 2025

Committee

Assigned Courts sub: Criminal

lower

Jan 8, 2025

Committee

Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors