DENVER – In Colorado, victims’ sexual past cannot be used to discredit them in a criminal case alleging rape.

A bill to be heard Monday in the state Senate Judiciary Committee would extend the same protections in civil court.

In the Senate, the bill is sponsored by Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, and Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora.

House Bill 1243, was sponsored in the lower chamber by Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette, with Rep. Cole Wist, R-Centennial, passed the House unanimously last week. The bill passed the House Judiciary unanimously on March 15.

“If something isn’t relevant for a criminal case, it shouldn’t be relevant for a civil case, either,” said Foote, an assistant prosecutor in Boulder County who is running for DA this year.

Seventeen other state’s and the federal court system have similar laws in the cases they hear, he said.

“This bill is going to help protect survivors of sexual assault,” Foote told the House Judiciary Committee two weeks ago.

Wist is a high-profile civil attorney and the assistant Republican leader in the House. He said the bill is meant to keep out irrelevant and prejudicial information that could unduly sway a decision, and it gives a judge the ability to weed that out.

“The bill before you places the court in the very effective role of being gatekeeper,” Wist told the House Judiciary Committee.

In criminal court, the only time an alleged victims’ sexual history can be brought up is if it pertains to subsequent sexual conduct with the defendant, or if evidence shows the specific encounter was not committed by the defendant.

Before that happens, however, a judge can request an on-camera hearing, then keep that interview and other evidence sealed unless the evidence is deemed admissible.

A defense lawyer would have to give a victim’s lawyers at least 63 days’ notice before trying to introduce such a defense in a civil case, under the bill.