House Bill 5790 Summary

• Creates the state forensic laboratory fund as a separate fund in the state treasury to receive assessments from criminal defendants and support forensic testing services.

• Authorizes municipalities (counties, townships, villages) that maintain forensic laboratories meeting specified criteria to establish local forensic laboratory funds.

• Imposes a $250 assessment on defendants convicted of crimes where a forensic test was conducted or for CSC (criminal sexual conduct) offenses, with assessments collected by courts and distributed to state and local forensic laboratory funds.

• Allocates fund distributions with 19-45% to the Department of State Police for DNA profiling costs, remaining balance distributed to municipalities based on number of criminal investigations requiring forensic tests, with any remaining balance credited to the state police.

• Requires money appropriated from the fund be used exclusively for forensic science services including testing costs, equipment, personnel training, and DNA identification procedures, and mandates annual reporting to the governor and legislature on fund revenues and expenditures.