| Updated: 10:05 p.m.
Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, announced her decision Friday to continue working to refine HB21. The measure has now been formally taken off the voting calendar, and Pierucci said she intends to bring it back next year with revisions.
It’s a rare move from a representative after the bill had already passed out of a House committee early in the session with unanimous support. It was next awaiting a vote on the floor. But it faced significant pushback from the public, including pleas from victims, victim advocates and attorneys.
Pierucci said that feedback led her to table the proposal. “We need more time,” she said on the House floor. “I think it’s really important that we get this right.”
Bill that supporters say would fill gap for rape victims in Utah law fails in committee msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
| Updated: 4:13 p.m.
A bill that would require Utah victims to provide more evidence that they’re being stalked before they can get a protective order has been passed by a committee despite pleas against it from victim advocates and attorneys.
Stalking victim Megan Mullineaux said she already hasn’t been able to get help under the state’s current statute, after a former partner has shown up at her house, her workplace and even when she was at a remote camping site. She said the proposed change will only make the process harder for those who need protection.
“It’s been extremely taxing and extremely difficult to prove, as it is now,” she said.
Panel OKs plan to narrow stalking law over victim opposition lmtonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lmtonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
| Updated: Jan. 25, 2021, 3:16 p.m.
The number of reported stalking cases has spiked at Utah’s colleges, worrying advocates who say the increase in crime is real but giving them hope, too, that more victims are coming forward to report.
Recently released data shows a total of 145 cases of stalking across the 10 public and private universities in the state for 2019. That’s up from 84 in 2018, according to crime statistics that colleges nationwide are required by the federal Clery Act to compile and release annually.
Never before had stalking reports crossed 100 for a single year among Utah’s institutions of higher education.