by WorldTribune Staff, April 30, 2025 Real World News
Democrats in California’s legislature have gutted a bill that would have made it a felony to buy 16- and 17-year-old children for sex.
The state assembly’s Public Safety Committee advanced the legislation, AB 379, but Democrats stripped the felony provision, reducing the sex trafficking crime to a misdemeanor.
California assembly Republicans slammed the change.
“Why are some @AssemblyDems planning to cut felony charges for adults who buy 16- and 17-year-olds for sex?” they asked in an X post. “There are no excuses. Protect the kids. Not the predators.”
A Democrat assemblywoman, Maggy Krell, brought a new bill this year to expand the felony charges for trafficking in older teenagers but the Democrati chairman of the Public Safety Committee, Nick Schultz, ordered the felony charges dropped from the bill in order to allow a hearing on it before proceeding.
Schultz insists he is not against the legislation, but said more study is needed and he wants a hearing held in the fall instead of pushing one through now.
So predators who victimize 16- and 17-year-olds get a pass until the fall.
Krell, who spent two decades working on trafficking cases for the California Department of Justice before entering the assembly, argues that under state law as it currently stands, there are harsher penalties for when victims are 18 than when they are 16 or 17.
“It’s a disgrace,” Krell told KCRA-TV about the felony provision being stripped from the bill. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’m not going to quit now. And I am going to bring this part of this bill back every year until I get the votes to protect children.”
Support Free Press Foundation
The American Free Press is Back!
California Democrats cut felony charges from bill on sex trafficking 16- and 17-year-olds added by Editor Two on
View all posts by Editor Two →