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Sponsors pitch Human Trafficking Prevention Act to Senate Judiciary Committee
Summary
Representatives Santucci and Josh Williams described House Bill 47 as strengthening penalties for human trafficking, lowering the culpable mental state for facilitators from "knowingly" to "recklessly," and expanding age‑based enhancements to protect minors and people with developmental disabilities.
Representatives Santucci and Josh Williams presented sponsor testimony on House Bill 47, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Representative Santucci told the committee the bill "will increase penalties for human trafficking, kidnapping, and abduction" and create enhanced penalties when those crimes are committed against minors and people with developmental disabilities.
Representative Josh Williams, a joint sponsor, said the bill would lower the mens rea applicable to facilitators from "knowingly" to "recklessly," arguing that change would make it easier to prosecute people who "turn a blind eye" to trafficking—for example, transporters or motel owners who repeatedly move victims without having actual knowledge of the trafficking. "By changing the knowing standard to a reckless standard, those who facilitate human trafficking need only to have reason to believe that their victims will be trafficked," Williams said.
Both sponsors cited Ohio‑specific data to frame the problem: Santucci noted Ohio's concentration of truck stops, highways and proximity to the Canadian border, and Williams referenced multi‑year case counts and prior enforcement efforts. Williams said the bill would expand age‑based sentencing enhancements from victims under 13 to victims under 18 and highlighted penalties that could include life terms in the most serious cases.
Ranking Member Hicks Hudson asked how reducing the culpable state from knowing to reckless would actually increase convictions of facilitators who claim they did not know the offenses were occurring. Williams responded that recklessness, a lower standard, means a person who "has reason to believe" and consciously disregards a substantial risk can be held criminally responsible. He added that the standard remains negotiable and that the sponsors have discussed complementary screening tools for juveniles in other pending legislation.
The committee took testimony and no vote was recorded; Chair Manning stated the bill would "stand as the first hearing."
