Senate committee advances bill to require court orders limiting dissemination of explicit material in adult-victim cases

Senator Grayson pressed the Senate Standing Committee on Public Safety to approve SB 10 56, a bill that would require judges in criminal cases to issue protective orders governing highly sensitive explicit material involving adult victims. The committee moved the measure as amended to Appropriations.

The bill’s author told the committee she would accept suggested amendments and said the measure "ensures that survivors are afforded meaningful privacy protections through clear and consistent standards." She argued the proposal preserves defendants’ constitutional discovery rights while preventing unnecessary copying and distribution of intimate materials.

Survivor witnesses framed the bill in personal terms. Aaron Quinn recounted the 2015 attack on his wife and family and said the couple later learned recordings from the crime may still be in third-party hands; he said the lack of consistent oversight left survivors at risk and that SB 10 56 "closes a critical privacy gap." Denise Huskins Quinn described the trauma of knowing recordings continued to exist outside court control and asked senators to protect victims’ dignity and privacy.

Opposition witnesses — including the California Public Defenders Association and California Attorneys for Criminal Justice — urged caution. Margo George said the bill "does not appropriately balance the defendant's due process right to a fair trial and to see the evidence against them" and criticized the bill’s draft for lacking a clear definition of covered material. Ignacio Hernandez warned that the proposal, as drafted, could interfere with attorneys’ ethical obligations to prepare a defense and recommended more precise procedures to identify which exhibits are protected.

The author and committee clarified the amendments would narrow application (striking the word "involving" in key phrases) and would apply the protective-order regime to specified categories of violent-felony prosecutions and certain offenses in Penal Code section 647(j). Senators also discussed mechanisms for allowing defendants or self-represented litigants access to evidence under court-ordered conditions.

The committee voted to move SB 10 56 to the Appropriations Committee. The bill’s next step is consideration in Appropriations, where the amended text and the interaction with discovery rules will be evaluated.