BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 1133
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 8, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                     SB 1133 (Leno) - As Amended:  June 27, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                             Public 
          SafetyVote:4-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill modifies asset forfeiture provisions regarding human 
          trafficking.  Specifically, this bill:  

          1) Authorizes the forfeiture of vehicles, boats, planes, money, 
            negotiable instruments, real property, or other things of 
            value used for the purpose of facilitating human trafficking 
            involving a commercial sex act, where the victim is under 18 
            years of age, and property was acquired through human 
            trafficking, or when such items of value were received in 
            exchange for the proceeds of human trafficking involving a 
            person under 18 years of age, when the crime involved a 
            commercial sex act.

          2)Specifies that 50% of the forfeiture proceeds shall be 
            distributed to the Victim-Witness Assistance Fund for grants 
            to community organizations serving human trafficking victims 
            and 50% of the proceeds shall be distributed to the General 
            Fund of the state or county, depending on the source of the 
            prosecution. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Unknown, likely minor forfeiture revenue increase to the state 
            GF, to local governments, and to the Victim-Witness Assistance 
            Fund.  Since the state has averaged only four commitments to 
            state prison for human trafficking over the past five years, 
            any forfeiture revenue increase is likely to be relatively 
            minor.

          2)Unknown minor GF costs to state trial courts to the extent 








                                                                  SB 1133
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            additional forfeiture hearings are required. Five forfeiture 
            hearings would cost in the range of $15,000.  

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . The author and supporters, including the Attorney 
            General (AG) and the Alameda District Attorney, contend this 
            bill, on top of existing human trafficking forfeiture 
            statutes, provides prosecutors a tool to ensure persons 
            convicted of sex-trafficking do not retain financial benefits 
            from this crime. SB 1133 allows for forfeiture for one 
            instance of sex trafficking, rather than requiring a pattern, 
            and it expands the property subject to forfeiture. 

           2)Human Trafficking  is defined as "any person who deprives or 
            violates the personal liberty of another person with the 
            intent of effect or maintains a felony violation of 
            enticement, pimping, pandering, abduction for the purposes of 
            prostitution, employing a minor in sexually explicit material, 
            and extortion."  ÝPenal Code Section 236.1(a).]  The crime of 
            human trafficking was added to the Penal Code in 2005.  

          3)The Major Differences Between SB 1133 and Current Forfeiture 
            Law  , as noted in the Senate and Assembly Public Safety 
            Committee analyses. 

             a)   Under existing criminal asset forfeiture law, forfeiture 
               is ordered after the defendant is convicted and the 
               prosecution establishes the defendant has engaged in a 
               pattern of criminal profiteering. This bill allows 
               forfeiture when only a single human trafficking crime is 
               established.  
             
               Without a pattern of criminal profiteering, it is likely 
               relatively little money or property would be forfeited. 
               This bill, however, allows not just forfeiture of the 
               profits of crime, but also the instrumentalities of the 
               crime, the property used to commit the crime. Property is 
               subject to forfeiture as an instrumentality if a 
               substantial purpose of the use of the property was to 
               facilitate sex trafficking of minors. 

             b)   Under existing law, all forfeited proceeds of sex 
               trafficking of minors are distributed to the Victim-Witness 
               Assistance Fund, with 50% available for grants to 








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               community-based organizations. Forfeiture pursuant to this 
               bill specifies 50% of the proceeds shall be distributed to 
               the General Fund of the state or county, whichever 
               jurisdiction or entity prosecuted the case.   

               The AG states that investigating and prosecuting human 
               trafficking cases is costly. This bill provides some 
               financial relief to county or state government.  
           
          4)Support.  According to the Alameda County District Attorney's 
            Office, "The Commercial sexual exploitation of children is big 
            business. Sadly, today there is no better return on money than 
            selling a child for sex.  The sale and purchase of children 
            for sex is the second largest industry in our country and has 
            become a multi-billion dollar industry that is expected to 
            surpass the illicit trade in guns and narcotics within ten 
            years."

           5)Opposition . According to the ACLU, "civil forfeiture laws 
            raise serious civil liberties concerns including the right to 
            be free from punishment that is disproportionate to the 
            offense.  Even courts that have upheld forfeiture laws have 
            recognized that they are "the hardest of all our laws 
            respecting ownership of private property"?.   
             
             "We appreciate the author's willingness to address many of our 
            concerns and incorporate various due process protections for 
            property owners in this legislation.  However, expansion of 
            civil asset laws beyond the very limited circumstances 
            currently authorized by statute - primarily for serious drug 
            felonies involving large amounts of drugs - remains troubling. 
            It sets an unnecessary precedent for expansion of asset 
            forfeiture for additional crimes and is a doubtful remedy in 
            stemming these crimes against young women."  
             
            Analysis Prepared by  :    Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081