Newsom signs bills to combat sex crimes, human trafficking

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(The Center Square) – A series of bills recently signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom will combat sex crimes, human trafficking and other violent crime in California, according to the Governor’s Office.

One of those laws, Assembly Bill 1845, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, bolsters protections on college campuses by requiring colleges and universities to institute policies and train employees to combat human trafficking and improve the identification and reporting of sexual crimes.

Krell was not available for an interview on Monday. However, in a comment sent via email, she told The Center Square that her bill focused on students in particular because of how degree-seeking students can find themselves in situations where they are susceptible to manipulation.

”As Deputy Attorney General, I prosecuted a case where the defendant stole the victim’s financial aid check and forced her into prostitution,” Krell said. “Students can be particularly vulnerable to exploitation for a variety of reasons including financial insecurity and housing instability. AB 1845 requires human trafficking prevention education and training on college campuses to better protect California students.”

The bill got significant support from the 3 Strands Global Foundation, which said in supporting statements enhances accountability measures for addressing sexual assault and human trafficking on college campuses.

“It’ll just make it so our university students have a much better understanding of sexual assault, human trafficking, boundaries, healthy relationships, all the things we have been doing for the last 16 years as it relates to prevention,” Ashlie Bryant, co-founder and CEO of 3 Strands Global Foundation, told The Center Square on Monday.

The law costs one-time expenditures from Proposition 98 in the amount of $1 million to $2.1 million statewide to implement, according to the bill analysis. The money would be used to update college and university policies statewide regarding sexual assault and human trafficking. Prop. 98 is a ballot measure California voters passed in 1988 to provide an annual minimum funding guarantee for K-12 schools and community colleges, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Representatives from California’s two major public university systems, the University of California and the California State University, did not respond to The Center Square's request for comment.

Krell’s bill was one of several that addresses public safety issues. Another notable bill Newsom signed in recent days, Senate Bill 1056, by Sen. Tim Grayson, D-Walnut Creek, requires courts to issue protective orders for adult victims in cases involving sexually explicit images of an adult who did not consent to those images being distributed. In such a case, that protective order will protect the privacy of the adult victim and prevent copying and transmission of the images while also ensuring the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

Grayson did not respond to The Center Square's request for comment before publication time on Monday. However, in comments made in a version of the bill analysis in August, he wrote that current law strictly regulates who gets to see and have possession of child pornography in criminal cases involving child sexual abuse, such as lawyers. However, the law is not as strict about sexually explicit images of adult victims, Grayson wrote.

"While child sexual abuse material is appropriately subject to explicit statutory safeguards, no parallel provision expressly requires similar court supervision when the material depicts or involves adult victims,” Grayson wrote. “As a result, safeguards may depend on prosecutorial discretion rather than consistent judicial oversight. SB 1056 extends a proven statutory framework currently applied to child sexual abuse material to similarly sensitive material involving adult survivors, while preserving defendants' rights to reasonable access necessary to prepare a defense."

The new law costs taxpayers $270.6 million to implement, according to the bill analysis, to build new rooms in courthouses or retrofit existing rooms to allow lawyers and legal staff the opportunity to look at those images when preparing for trial.

Groups that supported the bill earlier this year, including several police officers associations, did not respond to The Center Square's request for comment on Monday. Groups that opposed it, including California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the California Public Defenders Association, did not respond to The Center Square before press time. The Governor’s Office also did not respond.