republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/ab-2078.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Sexual activity with detained persons."
description: "Existing law makes it a crime for certain persons, including an employee or officer of a public entity detention facility, or an employee, officer, or agent of a private person or entity that provides a detention facility or staff for a detention facility, or a person or agent of a public or private entity detention facility, to engage in sexual activity with a consenting adult who is confined in a detention facility. For purposes of those provisions, \"detention facility\" includes a vehicle used to transport a person during a person's period of confinement."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 2078"
citation: "California AB 2078 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Sexual activity with detained persons."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nielsen"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 20
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2012-02-23"
last_action: "2012-07-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/029ef1e6-ddf2-4d46-9068-d4e34bd88ed1"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2078"
source_hash: "7cabbaa17895dec62f31682881c8e57097d463cb7cc7aac3f7ad25427f74f7d6"
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-ca"]
---

# California AB 2078 (20112012) — Sexual activity with detained persons.

Existing law makes it a crime for certain persons, including an employee or officer of a public entity detention facility, or an employee, officer, or agent of a private person or entity that provides a detention facility or staff for a detention facility, or a person or agent of a public or private entity detention facility, to engage in sexual activity with a consenting adult who is confined in a detention facility. For purposes of those provisions, "detention facility" includes a vehicle used to transport a person during a person's period of confinement.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/23/12 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2078&version=20110AB207899INT)
2. **03/21/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2078&version=20110AB207898AMD)
3. **07/13/12 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2078&version=20110AB207896CHP)
4. **AB2078** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2078)
5. **07/05/12 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2078&version=20110AB207897ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent #14 — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and re-refer to Committee on Appropriations with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 2078 NIELSEN Consent Calendar Second Day — **74–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Nielsen — primary (person)
- La Malfa — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2012-02-23** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2012-02-24** From printer. May be heard in committee March 25.
- **2012-03-08** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2012-03-21** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-03-22** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2012-03-29** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: to consent calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (March 27). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-04-18** From committee: Do pass. To consent calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (April 18). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-04-19** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-04-26** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 74. Noes 0. Page 4569.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-04-26** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2012-05-03** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2012-06-12** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (June 12). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-06-25** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2012-06-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-06-27** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2012-07-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 4225.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-07-02** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2012-07-06** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:20 p.m.
- **2012-07-13** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2012-07-13** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 123, Statutes of 2012.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/029ef1e6-ddf2-4d46-9068-d4e34bd88ed1`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).