Minn. Legislature to Hear Bill Concerning Law on Bodily Fluid Transfer on Police, EMS

April 25--A set of laws clarifying what happens when someone transfers bodily fluids onto an officer or emergency medical provider is making its way through the Minnesota Legislature.

The House of Representatives will hear a bill Tuesday that strengthens Minnesota's fourth-degree assault against officer charges allowing courts to force non-compliant people to submit blood samples for disease testing if emergency medical personnel have been exposed to a large amount of a patient's blood.

"If they don't show up to court, this allows an ex-parte hearing, where the judge will issue a bench warrant for their arrest," said Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center.

As chair of the House public safety committee, Cornish authored or has worked with other legislators on both of those bills. Cornish's bill clarifying fourth-degree assaults comes a year after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled a fourth-degree assault charge involving bodily transfers of fluids or feces also required officers to prove they were physically assaulted.

The bill ensures people can be charged for either physically assaulting police or transferring bodily fluids -- spitting, biting, throwing human waste, etc.

Excluding 2015, there have been about 400 reports of assault against officers in Minnesota each year since the state Department of Public Safety started tracking that data in 2012. Local law enforcement officials say measures that strengthen assault charges against police are important as those kinds of crimes are on the rise.

"We're seeing basic assaults and not just specific attacks on officers, but more and more people failing to comply in situations," said Todd Miller, Mankato's public safety director.

Officers who are assaulted with bodily fluids must get tested for any infectious diseases as a result, and some officers spend years going to the hospital to get tested, Miller said.

Cornish expects the bills to pass the House without controversy.

Copyright 2016 - The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.