City prosecutor pushes for veto of sex trafficking bill

Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kane­shiro is urging Gov. David Ige to veto a bill that would establish "sex trafficking" as a crime in Hawaii, while supporters of the same measure are mobilizing to persuade Ige to sign it into law.

The dispute is the latest chapter in a decade-long effort to create a new law here against sex trafficking, a law the city’s top prosecutor says isn’t needed because laws are already in place to punish human traffickers.

In fact, Kaneshiro last week wrote to Ige to warn that the proposed new sex trafficking law would backfire, and "severely restrict and deter law enforcement’s efforts to prosecute sex trafficking in Hawaii."

Existing law allows authorities to prosecute a pimp for first-degree promotion of prostitution if that person compels a person by force, threat, fraud or intimidation to engage in prostitution, or if a pimp profits from prostitution of a minor. That charge is a Class A felony that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

According to Kaneshiro, one problem under the bill is that before authorities could obtain a conviction for a similar Class A felony of sex trafficking, they would need to prove that prostitutes were forced or are underage; and they would also have to prove that the pimps are guilty of other offenses such as assault, extortion or kidnapping.

Kaneshiro said prosecutors persuadedlawmakers to adopt tougher penalties in connection with some prostitution offenses in 2011, and since then his office has worked with police to bring charges in 19 promoting-prostitution cases against 22 people. Seven of those people were convicted and sent to prison, and an additional 11 are either facing pending charges or awaiting trial.

"Changing laws simply for the sake of change is counterproductive," Kane­shiro wrote in his letter to Ige.

But Kathryn Xian, executive director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, said the sex trafficking bill includes important new tools for authorities to use in these cases, including new blanket authority for wiretapping and recording conversations during investigations. The bill also attempts to steer the authorities toward treating prostitutes as victims rather than as criminals.

The Kauai and Hawaii island prosecutors supported the proposed law, with Kauai Prosecutor Justin F. Kollar arguing in testimony to lawmakers that the proposed law rightly places emphasis on the pimps and johns as the "drivers of this global criminal enterprise."

Xian said the primary strategy by police and prosecutors today is to target prostitutes, to threaten them with "trumped-up charges" and to pressure them to testify against pimps or sex traffickers.

"It’s highly problematic, and it never really works because what happens is the girls now think that you are against them, too," said Xian, whose nonprofit organization has worked with hundreds of prostitutes.

Xian said prostitutes often fear their pimps, which can make them unwilling to go to court. The girls or women in many of these cases are in situations much like the victims of domestic violence, where the offender knows their family and friends and has threatened them, she said.

"Mistakes happen all the time. Cases get thrown out or dropped all the time, and we are not willing as victim advocates, we’re not willing to have these girls considered as collateral damage anymore," Xian said.

Ige has the options of signing the bill, vetoing the measure or allowing it to become law without his signature.