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 Page 2 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 SB 1133 Page 3 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