---
type: "Bill"
title: "Carnal knowledge of pretrial or posttrial offender; bail bondsmen, increases penalty."
description: "Carnal knowledge of pretrial or posttrial offender;bail bondsmen; penalty. Increases to a Class 6 felony from aClass 1 misdemeanor the penalty for an owner or employee of a bailbond company that posted bond for a person to carnally know suchperson if the owner or employee has the authority to revoke the person'sbond."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "HB 557"
citation: "Virginia HB 557 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Emily M. Brewer"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 34
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2020-01-06"
last_action: "2020-03-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/356d6fb5-8ce7-4532-b96e-ca4993b3bf02"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB557"
source_hash: "cdefcb0fbf857211cca5c8d20c71b6678b307b77fda4b75e6f1aaa3ca87d7e27"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 557 (2020) — Carnal knowledge of pretrial or posttrial offender; bail bondsmen, increases penalty.

Carnal knowledge of pretrial or posttrial offender;bail bondsmen; penalty. Increases to a Class 6 felony from aClass 1 misdemeanor the penalty for an owner or employee of a bailbond company that posted bond for a person to carnally know suchperson if the owner or employee has the authority to revoke the person'sbond.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0479)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0479)
2. **Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB557ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB557ER)
3. **Impact statement from VCSC (HB557)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB557)

## Votes

- Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate (37-Y 0-N) — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate (37-Y 0-N) — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N) — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Judiciary (13-Y 0-N) — **13–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (99-Y 0-N) — **98–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice (17-Y 0-N) — **17–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Emily M. Brewer — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-01-06** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20103236D `introduction`
- **2020-01-06** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-08** Impact statement from VCSC (HB557)
- **2020-02-06** Assigned Courts sub: Criminal `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-06** Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-07** Reported from Courts of Justice (17-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-09** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-10** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-02-11** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-02-11** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (99-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-12** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2020-02-12** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-13** Impact statement from DPB (HB557)
- **2020-02-19** Reported from Judiciary (13-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-19** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-26** Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-27** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-28** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-28** Passed Senate (37-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2020-02-28** Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate (37-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-28** Passed by for the day
- **2020-03-02** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-03-02** Passed by for the day
- **2020-03-03** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-03-03** Passed by for the day
- **2020-03-04** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-03-04** Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2020-03-07** Enrolled
- **2020-03-07** Signed by President
- **2020-03-08** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-03-09** Impact statement from DPB (HB557ER)
- **2020-03-12** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 12, 2020
- **2020-03-12** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
- **2020-03-27** Approved by Governor-Chapter 479 (effective 7/1/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/356d6fb5-8ce7-4532-b96e-ca4993b3bf02`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).