SUMMARY--Authorizes certain documents concerning search warrants to be sealed. (BDR 14-1543)
FISCAL NOTE: Effect on Local Government: No.
Effect on the State or on Industrial Insurance: No.
EXPLANATION - Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is material to be omitted.
AN ACT relating to search warrants; authorizing a magistrate to order certain affidavits and recordings of oral statements concerning search warrants to be sealed; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1 NRS 179.045 is hereby amended to read as follows:
179.045 1. A search warrant may issue only on affidavit or affidavits sworn to before the magistrate and establishing the grounds for issuing the warrant or as provided in subsection 2. If the magistrate is satisfied that grounds for the application exist or that there is probable cause to believe that they exist, he shall issue a warrant identifying the property and naming or describing the person or place to be searched.
2. In lieu of the affidavit required by subsection 1, the magistrate may take an oral statement given under oath, which must be recorded in the presence of the magistrate or in his immediate vicinity by a certified court reporter or by electronic means, transcribed, certified by the reporter if he recorded it, and certified by the magistrate. The statement must be filed with the clerk of the court.
3. Upon a showing of good cause, the magistrate may order an affidavit or a recording of an oral statement given pursuant to this section to be sealed. Upon a showing of good cause, a court may cause the affidavit or recording to be unsealed.
4. After a magistrate has issued a search warrant, whether it is based on an affidavit or an oral statement given under oath, he may orally authorize a peace officer to sign the [magistrate's] name of the magistrate on a duplicate original warrant. A duplicate original search warrant shall be deemed to be a search warrant. It must be returned to the magistrate who authorized the signing of his name on it. The magistrate shall endorse his name and enter the date on the warrant when it is returned to him. Any failure of the magistrate to make such an endorsement and entry does not in itself invalidate the warrant.
[4.] 5. The warrant must be directed to a peace officer in the county where the warrant is to be executed. It must [state] :
(a) State the grounds or probable cause for its issuance and the names of the persons whose affidavits have been taken in support thereof [. It] ; or
(b) Incorporate by reference the affidavit or oral statement upon which it is based.
The warrant must command the officer to search forthwith the person or place named for the property specified.
[5.] 6. The warrant must direct that it be served between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., unless the magistrate, upon a showing of good cause therefor, inserts a direction that it be served at any time.
[6.] 7. The warrant must designate the magistrate to whom it is to be returned.