A Democratic-controlled House committee killed legislation that supporters said would put more teeth into Colorado law following hours of testimony, in which victims who were bought and sold as children for purposes of sexual exploitation sought to persuade lawmakers to advance the measure.  

House Bill 1092 would have mandated minimum sentences for those who buy children for sexual exploitation. The bill was heard in the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, which is also known as the “kill committee.” On Thursday, the panel lived up to its nickname, killing the bill on an 8-3 party-line vote.

Advocates said they aren’t giving up and promised to be back next year.

More than 50 witnesses packed a state Capitol hearing room, with all but three testifying in favor of the bill. While all were adults, many were survivors who testified they had been sold when they were children. The sellers were often either family members or friends. Several testified they did not know the buyers.

Kelly Dore — who said her father was sentenced to less than a year in prison for selling her for drugs for 14 years, beginning when she was just a year old — told the committee that, even after he was released, he re-offended, and other female family members came forward to report they, too, had been trafficked by him.

“I can’t tell you the number or the hundreds of men that I was forced to sleep with. My earliest memories, I was still in diapers, and I was born thinking that this is what all little girls do, that this is what we’re supposed to do,” she said.

Not one of her buyers was ever prosecuted, she said. 

Dore grew up, married (to former state Rep. Tim Dore), had children, and was elected to public office as an Elbert County commissioner. Dore has been a familiar face at the state Capitol on human trafficking legislation, including working on the 2017 human trafficking law.

“It’s hard for me to reconcile that we still are not any closer to protecting the most vulnerable children than when I took my trafficker to court at 15,” Dore told the committee. 

“If we don’t create policies and laws that are applicable to supporting the victims … then we’re never going to do better as a state,” she said.

She said the legislation isn’t about the people who are compelled to continue to recruit or bring people in because they’re forced to do so by their traffickers.

“This is strictly about the adult buyers,” she said. 

Dore also acknowledged the bill would likely die, given its assigned committee.

“So, let’s be honest, I know what this committee is. I know that this bill was sent to the ‘kill’ committee to have it killed,” she said. “I do understand why this legislation is concerning and we’ve heard today and through speaking to many of you individually, legislators always cringe when an existing piece of legislation changes one word ‘may’ to ‘shall,’ and that’s what we’re talking about here.”

HB 1092 would have imposed a minimum sentence of four years for those convicted of a class 3 felony tied to crimes of child prostitution, one type of pandering of a child, procurement of a child, keeping a place of child prostitution, pimping of a child, inducement of child prostitution, and patronizing a prostituted child. 

While the Colorado District Attorney’s Council has taken a position of “monitoring” due to concerns over conflicts between current law and the bill’s language on sentencing, District Attorney John Kellner of the 18th Judicial District favored the measure.

Kellner talked about a dedicated human trafficking unit within his office that he said aggressively prosecutes offenders, especially traffickers who run those operations. He said he supports the bill’s efforts to go after the demand side of human trafficking. 

Kellner said human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar operations, second in profitability only to illegal drugs. Kellner also spoke about a state and federal task force, Operation Cross Country, which found the average age of the kids rescued to be about 13 years old.

“That’s a 13-year-old who should be sitting in a seventh grade class right now, instead of being victimized by people they often trust,” he told the committee.

Kellner explained the difference between current state law and what HB 1092 proposes, saying the human trafficking statute, which is a Class 2 felony, results in a mandatory minimum sentence. But under the law that HB 1092 seeks to change, buyers are charged with probation eligible offenses. 

HB 1092 would go after those who “do not see full justice because of the way that our statutes currently exist,” he said. Over the last two years, Kellner said he has prosecuted 33 cases, and about one-third got actual prison time.

The rest got probation, although some also received jail time, he said.

A mandatory minimum would ensure consistency in those outcomes and that repeat offenders would be held accountable, Kellner said.

Representatives from the Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson county sheriff’s departments also testified in favor of the measure.

An investigator with the Jeffco Crimes Against Children Unit said that, in 2021 and 2022, his unit arrested 91 predators who targeted children for sexual purposes. Of those arrested, 47 were given a probation sentence, while 20 others received a deferred sentence.

“They pleaded this serious felony crime down to a misdemeanor” — meaning that 73% of child predators received nothing more than a “slap on the wrist” in Jefferson County, the investigator said. 

And of those 47, 16 have already violated their probation, he said, adding, “This clearly demonstrates that a simple probation sentence is not a deterrent for these vile offenders.”

Courtney Hill, the victim services manager for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said offenders are often White men with a higher socioeconomic class and who have the means and ability to hire a well-known experienced attorney to help them fight and plea down their punishment.

“While the probation sentence may hinder their playing field for some time, it does not end it,” Hill said.

She has also seen defendants on probation, she said, adding that even returning to court after failing to comply with probation, many are given a second chance on probation.

She told the committee that the system is failing children, she told the committee: “Probation is not an appropriate sentence for someone who enjoys buying children.”

Law enforcement does not have the resources to tackle this alone, said an investigator with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office. 

“We have a lot of middle-aged, White males who like to pay for sex here in Colorado,” the investigator said, adding they know law enforcement doesn’t have the resources to fight or the laws to support putting them in jail.

“These sex buyers come here and they know that getting caught is minimal and that if they do get caught, well it’s likely probation a slap on the wrist. This is a risk they’re willing to take,” the investigator said. 

He also pointed out that Colorado law, including the 2017 statute, does not allow a prosecutor to charge a sex buyer with human trafficking.

Testifying against the bill were two attorneys with the state’s public defender’s office, who noted a recent hacker attack meant they had not seen the bill until yesterday. They also were unable to answer questions on the number of buyers of children they’ve defended in the past.