Bill Text: MO HB214 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Changes the laws regarding human trafficking
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 2011-07-12 - Delivered to Secretary of State (G) [HB214 Detail]
Download: Missouri-2011-HB214-Introduced.html
FIRST REGULAR SESSION
96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES ZERR (Sponsor), ALLEN, LICHTENEGGER, GUERNSEY, ENTLICHER, KLIPPENSTEIN, FLANIGAN, FUNDERBURK, GRISAMORE, SCHIEFFER, CONWAY (14), BAHR, JONES (89), NOLTE, SILVEY, DAY, OXFORD, BLACK, KRATKY, KIRKTON, MOLENDORP, KANDER, LEARA, DIECKHAUS, PARKINSON, McNARY, LAMPE, STILL, COLONA, FISHER AND BROWN (85) (Co-sponsors).
0824L.02I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal sections 566.200, 566.203, 566.206, 566.209, 566.212, 566.213, 566.218, and 566.223, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof eight new sections relating to human trafficking, with penalty provisions.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Sections 566.200, 566.203, 566.206, 566.209, 566.212, 566.213, 566.218, and 566.223, RSMo, are repealed and eight new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 566.200, 566.203, 566.206, 566.209, 566.212, 566.213, 566.218, and 566.223, to read as follows:
566.200. As used in sections 566.200 to 566.221, the following terms shall mean:
(1) "Basic rights information", information applicable to a noncitizen, including but not limited to information about human rights, immigration, emergency assistance and resources, and the legal rights and resources for victims of domestic violence;
(2) "Blackmail", any threat to reveal damaging or embarrassing information about a person to that person's spouse, family, associates, or the public at large, including a threat to expose any secret tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule;
(3) "Client", a person who is a resident of the United States and the state of Missouri and who contracts with an international marriage broker to meet recruits;
[(3)] (4) "Commercial sex act", any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to, promised, or received by any person;
[(4)] (5) "Criminal history record information", criminal history record information, including information provided in a criminal background check, obtained from the Missouri state highway patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation;
(6) "Financial harm", detriment, injury, or loss of a financial nature, including credit extortion, criminal violation of the usury laws under chapter 408, or employment contracts that violate the statute of frauds provisions under chapter 432;
[(5)] (7) "International marriage broker":
(a) A corporation, partnership, business, individual, or other legal entity, whether or not organized under any law of the United States or any other state, that charges fees to residents of Missouri for providing dating, matrimonial, or social referrals or matching services between United States citizens or residents and nonresident aliens by providing information or a forum that would permit individuals to contact each other. Such contact shall include, but is not limited to:
a. Providing the name, telephone number, postal address, electronic mail address, or voice message mailbox of an individual, or otherwise facilitating communication between individuals; or
b. Providing an opportunity for an in-person meeting;
(b) Such term shall not include:
a. A traditional matchmaking organization of a religious nature that operates on a nonprofit basis and otherwise operates in compliance with the laws of the countries in which it operates, including the laws of the United States;
b. An entity that provides dating services between United States citizens or residents and other individuals who may be aliens, but does not do so as its principal business, and charges comparable rates to all individuals it serves regardless of the gender or country of citizenship or residence of the individual; or
c. An organization that does not charge a fee to any party for the services provided;
[(6)] (8) "Involuntary servitude or forced labor", a condition of servitude induced by means of:
(a) Any scheme, plan, or pattern of behavior intended to cause a person to believe that, if the person does not enter into or continue the servitude, such person or another person will suffer [substantial bodily harm] serious physical injury or physical restraint; or
(b) The abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process;
[(7)] (9) "Marital history information", a declaration of the person's current marital status, the number of times the person has previously been married, and whether any previous marriages occurred as a result of service from an international marriage broker;
(10) "Nudity", the showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area, vulva, anus, or any part of the nipple or areola of the female breast;
[(8)] (11) "Peonage", illegal and involuntary servitude in satisfaction of debt;
[(9)] (12) "Recruit", a noncitizen, nonresident, recruited by an international marriage broker for the purpose of providing dating, matrimonial, or social referral services;
(13) "Sexual conduct", sexual intercourse as defined in section 566.010; deviate sexual intercourse as defined in section 566.010; actual or simulated acts of human masturbation; physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or the breast of a female in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification; or any sadomasochistic abuse or acts including animals or any latent objects in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification;
(14) "Sexual performance", any play, motion picture, film, videotape, video recording, dance, or exhibition which includes sexual conduct or nudity, performed before an audience of one or more, whether in person or online or through other forms of telecommunication;
(15) "Victim of trafficking", a person who is a victim of offenses under section 566.203, 566.206, 566.209, 566.212, or 566.213.
566.203. 1. A person commits the crime of abusing an individual through forced labor by knowingly providing or obtaining the labor or services of a person:
(1) By [threats of serious harm or physical restraint against such person or another person] causing or threatening to cause serious physical injury to any person;
(2) By physically restraining or threatening to physically restrain another person;
(3) By blackmail;
(4) By causing or threatening to cause financial harm to any person;
[(2)] (5) By means of any scheme, plan, or pattern of behavior intended to cause such person to believe that, if the person does not perform the labor services, the person or another person will suffer [substantial bodily harm or] serious physical injury, physical restraint, or financial harm; or
[(3)] (6) By means of the abuse or threatened abuse of the law or the legal process.
2. A person who pleads guilty to or is found guilty of the crime of abuse through forced labor shall not be required to register as a sexual offender pursuant to the provisions of section 589.400, unless such person is otherwise required to register pursuant to the provisions of such section.
3. The crime of abuse through forced labor is a class B felony.
566.206. 1. A person commits the crime of trafficking for the purposes of slavery, involuntary servitude, peonage, or forced labor if a person knowingly recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means, including but not limited to, through the use of force, abduction, coercion, fraud, deception, blackmail, or causing or threatening to cause financial harm, another person for labor or services, for the purposes of slavery, involuntary servitude, peonage, or forced labor, or benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in such activities.
2. A person who pleads guilty to or is found guilty of the crime of trafficking for the purposes of slavery, involuntary servitude, peonage, or forced labor shall not be required to register as a sexual offender pursuant to the provisions of section 589.400, unless such person is otherwise required to register pursuant to the provisions of such section.
3. The crime of trafficking for the purposes of slavery, involuntary servitude, peonage, or forced labor is a class B felony.
566.209. 1. A person commits the crime of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation if a person knowingly recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means, including but not limited to, through the use of force, abduction, coercion, fraud, deception, blackmail, or causing or threatening to cause financial harm, another person for the use or employment of such person in sexual conduct [as defined in section 556.061] , a sexual performance, or the production of explicit sexual material as defined in section 573.010, without his or her consent, or benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in such activities.
2. The crime of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation is a class B felony.
566.212. 1. A person commits the crime of sexual trafficking of a child if the individual knowingly:
(1) Recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means, including but not limited to, through the use of force, abduction, coercion, fraud, deception, blackmail, or causing or threatening to cause financial harm, a person under the age of eighteen to participate in a commercial sex act, a sexual performance, or the production of explicit sexual material as defined in section 573.010, or benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in such activities; or
(2) Causes a person under the age of eighteen to engage in a commercial sex act, a sexual performance, or the production of explicit sexual material as defined in section 573.010.
2. It shall not be an affirmative defense that the defendant believed that the person was eighteen years of age or older.
3. The crime of sexual trafficking of a child is a class A felony if the child is under the age of eighteen.
566.213. 1. A person commits the crime of sexual trafficking of a child under the age of twelve if the individual knowingly:
(1) Recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means, including but not limited to, through the use of force, abduction, coercion, fraud, deception, blackmail, or causing or threatening to cause financial harm, a person under the age of twelve to participate in a commercial sex act, a sexual performance, or the production of explicit sexual material as defined in section 573.010, or benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in such activities; or
(2) Causes a person under the age of twelve to engage in a commercial sex act, a sexual performance, or the production of explicit sexual material as defined in section 573.010.
2. It shall not be an affirmative defense that the defendant believed that the person was twelve years of age or older.
3. Sexual trafficking of a child less than twelve years of age shall be a felony for which the authorized term of imprisonment is life imprisonment without eligibility for probation or parole until the defendant has served not less than twenty-five years of such sentence. Subsection 4 of section 558.019 shall not apply to the sentence of a person who has pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of sexual trafficking of a child less than twelve years of age, and "life imprisonment" shall mean imprisonment for the duration of a person's natural life for the purposes of this section.
566.218. Notwithstanding sections 557.011, 558.019, and 559.021, a court sentencing [an offender] a defendant convicted of violating the provisions of [sections] section 566.203, 566.206, 566.209, 566.212, [and] or 566.215 shall order the [offender] defendant to pay restitution to the victim of the offense regardless of whether the defendant is sentenced to a term of imprisonment or probation. The minimum restitution ordered by the court shall be in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars plus an amount determined by the court necessary for the mental and physical rehabilitation of the victim and any child of the victim.
566.223. 1. Any individual who is alleging that a violation of sections 566.200 to 566.221 has occurred against his or her person shall be afforded the rights and protections provided in the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Public Law 106-386, as amended.
2. It shall be an affirmative defense for any victim of trafficking under any prosecution for offenses under chapter 567 that such person was a victim of trafficking during the time of the alleged offense and that such crime was committed at the direction of another or in furtherance of the trafficking enterprise.
3. The department of public safety is authorized to establish procedures for identifying victims of trafficking under sections 566.200 to 566.223. The department may establish training programs as well as standard protocols for appropriate agencies to educate officials and employees on state statutes and federal laws regulating human trafficking and with the identification and assistance of victims of human trafficking. Such agencies may include but not be limited to state employees and contractors, including the children's division of the department of social services, juvenile courts, state law enforcement agencies, health care professionals, and runaway and homeless youth shelter administrators.
4. As soon as possible after a first encounter with a person who reasonably appears to a law enforcement agency or a prosecuting attorney's or circuit attorney's office to be a victim of trafficking as defined in section 566.200, that agency or office shall notify the department of social services and, where applicable, juvenile justice authorities, that the person may be a victim of trafficking, in order that such agencies may determine whether the person may be eligible for state or federal services, programs, or assistance.
5. The department of social services may coordinate with relevant state, federal, and local agencies to evaluate appropriate services for victims of trafficking. State agencies may implement programs and enter into contracts with nonprofit agencies and other nongovernment organizations to provide services to confirmed victims of trafficking, insofar as funds are available for that purpose. Such services may include, but are not limited to, case management, emergency temporary housing, health care, mental health counseling, alcohol and drug addiction screening and treatment, language interpretation and translation services, English language instruction, job training, and placement assistance.
6. A victim of trafficking may bring a civil action against a person or persons who plead guilty to or are found guilty of a violation of section 566.203, 566.206, 566.209, 566.212, or 566.213, to recover the actual damages sustained by the victim, court costs, including reasonable attorney's fees, and punitive damages, when determined to be appropriate by the court. Any action commenced under this section shall be filed within three years after the later of:
(1) The final order in the related criminal case;
(2) The victim's emancipation from the defendant; or
(3) The victim's eighteenth birthday.
7. The attorney general may bring a civil action, in the circuit court in which the victim of trafficking was found, to recover from any person or entity that benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from violations of section 566.203, 566.206, 566.209, 566.212, or 566.213, a civil penalty of not more than fifty thousand dollars for each violation of section 566.203, 566.206, 566.209, 566.212, or 566.213, and injunctive and other equitable relief as the court may, in its discretion, order. The first priority of any money or property collected under such an action shall be to pay restitution to the victims of trafficking on whose behalf the civil action was brought.
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