Bill Author Removed From California Child Sex Trafficking Bill
The state Assembly voted 55–21 to reject a provision of
Krell's name as bill author was replaced by two of her Democratic colleagues, Assembly Public Safety Chair Nick Schultz from Burbank and Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen from Elk Grove.
In
'Minors of any age in the state of California that are contacted for a sexual purpose, that is punishable by a felony already,' said Schultz, a former deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice (DOJ).
In response, Krell, who is also a former deputy attorney general for the California DOJ, said there is still a loophole in California law that fails to clarify that purchasing sex with a minor is rape.
Related Stories
4/30/2025
5/1/2025
'The problem with [the law], which my colleague from Burbank referenced, is it includes a whole host of statutes for contacting a minor, but there's one that's missing: prostitution,' she said.
She said she didn't care whether her name was on the bill, but she said she was concerned that the bill no longer treats 16- and 17-year-olds as victims.
'We need to say loud and clear that if you're under 18, a child, a minor ... that the person who's buying that person should be charged with a felony. It's plain and simple,' she said.
The legislation advanced on April 29 after the provision was removed in a 7–0 vote in the public safety committee.
Democratic Assemblymembers Mia Bonta and LaShae Sharp-Collins abstained from the committee vote. They did not reply to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
At the time, Schultz
'As we've heard today and outside of this chamber, there are Californians who are concerned about unintended consequences on young adults and LGBTQIA+ Californians, should it be a felony for 16- and 17-year-olds,' Schultz said before the vote.
The Epoch Times reached out to Schultz and Krell for comment.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who pushed for the same provision to be removed in a similar bill last year,
Newsom Criticizes Removal of Provision
In response to the committee vote, California Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke out against members of his own party for removing the provision from the bill.
'The law should treat all sex predators who solicit minors the same—as a felony, regardless of the intended victim's age. Full stop,' the governor's office said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times on April 30.
The governor's office says Newsom has been consistent on this issue, pointing to a bill he signed in 2023, Senate Bill 14, that made sex trafficking of minors a
In 2024, the governor signed into law Senate Bill 1414, also authored by Grove, which
Back then, amendments also excluded 16- and 17-year-olds, which Grove said was disappointing. This year, she co-authored AB 379 with Krell to fix this loophole, along with implementing penalties for loitering to purchase sex and funding survivor support.
Democratic committee leaders again removed the provisions that would have made purchasing older minors a felony.
'They did that to my bill last year,' Grove told The Epoch Times on May 1. 'They excluded 16- and 17-year-olds from the felony provisions, treating them like adults, which is completely absurd.'
Republican Assemblyman Juan Alanis, vice chair of the public safety committee, who co-authored the sex trafficking bills both this year and last year, said he had 'never been more angry and disturbed by actions taken on the Assembly Floor' on May 1.
'Purchasing or trafficking any minor of any age for sex should be a felony. Period,' he said in an emailed statement.
The public safety committee plans to schedule an informational hearing in the fall to discuss the felony provision, according to Schultz.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Texas Republicans vote to arrest Democrats in stalled redistricting vote
Texas Republicans have voted to track down and arrest the more than 50 Democratic legislators who fled the state to prevent a vote on a controversial redistricting plan that would significantly favour conservatives. The vote passed by 85 to 6, and came after Republican Gov Greg Abbott threatened bribery charges against the absent Democrats. After the vote, the governor ordered state troopers to "to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans". The proposed congressional map, unveiled last week by Republicans, would create more Republican seats in the US House of Representatives in Washington DC where they hold a slim majority currently. At least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislative body must be present to proceed with the vote. The quorum became unreachable more than 50 Democratic lawmakers left the state. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows told reporters after the vote that he had "signed the civil arrest warrants" for the Democrats. Most of the Democrats fled to Illinois where the state's Governor JB Pritzker said he was "going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them" amid arrest threats from Abbott. The Democrats said they planned to stay away from Texas for two weeks until the end of a special legislative session. "We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don't know," Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus leader, said. The vote on Monday is mostly symbolic, according to the Texas Tribune, as the warrants only apply within state lines. The move empowers the chamber's sergeant-at-arms and state troopers to arrest the absent lawmakers and deliver them to the state capitol building in Austin. They would not face any civil or criminal charges as a result of the warrant, the newspaper reports. Republican Governor Greg Abbott warned earlier that lawmakers who refuse to return to vote on the map could face second-degree felony charges. "It would be bribery if any lawmaker took money to perform or to refuse to perform an act in the legislature," Abbott said on Fox News on Monday. "And the reports are these legislators have both sought money and offered money to skip the vote, to leave the legislature, to take a legislative act. That would be bribery." After legislators voted to issue warrants against the Democrats, Abbott issued a statement ordering the Texas Department of Public Safety "to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans". He added that his order will remain in effect "until all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol". Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, had also threatened to have the Democratic leaders arrested. Paxton, who is currently running for the US Senate, wrote on X that the state should "use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law". At the federal level in Washington, Texas Republicans currently hold 25 out of the state's 38 congressional seats. They hope the new maps could increase that number to 30 - all in constituencies that President Donald Trump won last November by at least 10 points. Trump's party currently has 219 of 435 seats in the US House of Representatives, while Democrats hold 212. The redistricting could help pad the slender Republican majority in the House, which is the lower chamber of Congress. Both Republicans and Democrats have been accused of manipulating boundaries of an electoral constituency - commonly known as gerrymandering. A few Democratic leaders in other states have suggested they may redraw their own legislative maps to counter the proposed losses of seats in Texas. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she was exploring a constitutional amendment to move up the timeline to redraw legislative lines in her state. New York - along with California, Colorado and Washington - assigns redistricting to non-partisan, independent commissions, rather than the state legislatures. States typically undergo redistricting every 10 years, when voting maps are redrawn to account for population changes. The most recent US Census was in 2020. Redrawing district lines in the middle of a decade is unusual. Democrats flee Texas to block Republican redistricting map backed by Trump
USA Today
22 minutes ago
- USA Today
Texas Democrats flee state amid heated redistricting battle. Has this happened before?
WASHINGTON - A president jumping out of a window, a senator carried feet-first from their office, and state legislators moving into an out-of-state hotel: For as long as Americans have been legislating, they've been fleeing from legislatures to prevent votes from happening. Texas House Democrats fled the Lone Star State on Aug. 3 in an attempt to block a redistricting that would give Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives up to five more seats in the 2026 midterms. The Democrats dispersed to friendly blue states: Many traveled to the Chicago area in Illinois, greeted by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, while other groups landed in Boston, Massachusetts and Albany, New York. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to expel any Democrat who was not back in Austin by the time the legislature reconvened Aug. 4 at 3 p.m. CT. Republicans need what is called a quorum, or the minimum number of lawmakers needed to be present on the floor to carry out business. But the tactic of fleeing to deny quorum is one that's been used by both parties since the 1800s. Some lawmakers have hid out in their offices, while others have fled their state to avoid being compelled to show up to vote, as is the case with Texas Democrats. These are some of the most prominent examples from history. 1840: Abraham Lincoln jumps out of a first-floor window Before Abraham Lincoln served as president, he was a member of the Illinois state legislature from 1834 to 1842. He once jumped out of a first-floor window to try to prevent a quorum on a vote to shut down a state-run bank in 1840, according to The New York Times. Lincoln, a member of the Whig Party at the time, was an advocate of the state-run bank while his Democratic colleagues were not, the Times reported. Samuel Wheeler, who is the llinois state historian, told the Times that Lincoln had already been marked present for the quorum, making his effort pointless. 'It's not an episode that he's very proud of later,' Wheeler said. 1988: Bob Packwood carried into the chamber Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood, a Republican, tried to avoid a quorum call in February 1988 amid opposition to a Democratic-driven campaign finance reform bill, according to the U.S. Senate. He hid in his office until Capitol police later found him. The New York Times reported that Packwood had placed a chair against one door to prevent the officers from forcing it open. 'It was their mass against my mass,' he said at the time. The officers entered Packwood's office through another door, and they 'transported him feet-first into the Chamber,' the U.S. Senate website says. 2003: Texas Democrats protest redistricting effort Texas Democrats fled the state in 2003 to break quorum over Republican redistricting efforts. House Democrats went to Oklahoma until the regular session of the legislature ended, the Texas Tribune reported. Eleven Democratic state senators went to New Mexico after former Gov. Rick Perry called a special session, according to the Tribune. Then Democratic Sen. John Whitmire returned to Texas, officially allowing Republicans to advance with their redistricting plans after reaching a quorum. 2011: Wisconsin Democrats challenge anti-union bill Wisconsin Democrats fled their state in February 2011 in an attempt to block a budget-repair bill that would curtail collective bargaining rights from public employee unions, though the bill still ended up passing, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The lawmakers went to Illinois, but stayed at different places due to security concerns. When they returned in March, nearly 70,000 trade union and Democratic supporters greeted them at Capitol Square, according to The Guardian. 2011: Indiana Democrats flee to Comfort Suites in Illinois Indiana Democrats fled their state 14 years ago to halt legislative business and challenge the passage of a controversial anti-union legislation, The Daily Illini reported. They headed to the Comfort Suites hotel in Urbana, Illinois, on Feb. 22 that year and didn't return to their home state until March 28, the paper reported. Their bill total came out to be over $84,000 dollars. 'It was a very difficult decision - very difficult - and it got more difficult every day,' State Representative Ed DeLaney, who fled with his colleagues, told The New York Times in an interview. 'You only have so much ammunition, and this is a way to spend an awful lot of your ammunition on one point, and draw a lot of criticism in the process.' Contributing: Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY
USA Today
22 minutes ago
- USA Today
Texas Democrats know they're fighting a losing cause. At least they're fighting.
This move by Democrats is performative at best. But it's one of the only things they've done to counteract President Trump's complete takeover of the government. Democrats in Texas are trying to represent the will of their constituents. To do so, they had to leave the state. On Aug. 4, the Texas Legislature was scheduled to vote on congressional redistricting that would turn five districts favoring Democrats to favor Republicans. To prevent the vote from happening, Democratic state legislators fled Texas, ensuring that the General Assembly would not have a quorum and thus making the vote impossible. 'We come here today with absolute moral clarity that this is absolutely the right thing to do to protect the people of the state of Texas,' state Rep. Gene Wu, the leader of the House Democratic Caucus, said at an Aug. 3 press conference in Chicago. Other legislators traveled to Albany, N.Y., and Boston. On one hand, this move by the Democrats is performative at best. Eventually, they will have to go back to Texas, and the new maps will be voted on. This doesn't mean it's a bad thing, though. It's one of the only things Democrats have done to counteract President Donald Trump's complete takeover of the government. Texas Democrats are pushing back on Republican antics This did not come out of nowhere – Trump specifically asked Republicans in the state to redraw the congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms to give their party an advantage through gerrymandering in the state's cities, which would give Democrats even less representation than they currently have. Gov. Greg Abbott had to call a special session to approve the maps. At the press conference, Wu pointed out that this decision is happening against the backdrop of historic flooding in central Texas in July that killed 135 people, including more than 35 children. Instead of focusing on disaster relief, Republicans are choosing to address the congressional maps. Republicans in Texas should be focused on helping their communities, not bending to the whims of the president. At the very least, redrawing districts could wait until after flooding has been addressed. While it was bold of Democrats to leave at such a perilous time, it's clear they're doing so because they feel it's the only option. Opinion: Republicans are afraid of Mamdani in New York. That's a good thing. Democrats know this is all for show. At least they're taking a stand. The Democrats are certainly getting the attention of their fellow Texas politicians. Abbott is so upset, he's threatening to remove the lawmakers from office if they do not return to the state to vote on the new maps. He also said the Democrats possibly committed felonies by fundraising for the $500 a day fines they're facing. 'Come and take it,' the Democrats replied. Opinion: What if I told you there's a Democrat who can still get the Republican vote? Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is also running for U.S. Senate, said he believes the runaway legislators should be 'found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.' Dustin Burrows, a Republican and the Texas Speaker of the House, has said he's prepared to issue civil arrest warrants for the missing Democrats. Trump has not weighed in on the Democratic play, seeing as he's too busy firing the commissioner of Labor Statistics and weighing in on Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad. Ultimately, this act of protest will have to come to an end. Democrats will have to head back to Austin and vote on these maps, whether they like it or not. But at least they're doing something to sound the alarm on the president's meddling and Republican acquiescence. People have been souring on the Democrats as of late. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that most Democrats see their party as 'weak' or 'ineffective.' It doesn't help that Democratic leadership is nowhere to be found nationwide. If anything, this act of protest will put attention back on the party and serve as a starting point for a stronger presence in predominantly red states ahead of the midterms. They're finally fighting back, even in a very red state like Texas. Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno
