By Gary K. King
Before being elected your state attorney general, I served in the Legislature for 12 years. An important lesson I learned during that time was that getting legislation passed and enacted into law is an often complicated and lengthy process. With that lesson in mind, I am assured that my legislative agenda as attorney general was a successful one during the 2008 session, and the results will benefit
Many of you may remember that my top priority for this session was to get a law passed that would make it a crime to engage in the practice of human trafficking. Senate Bill 71, sponsored by Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, creates such an offense for the first time in
When the governor affixes his expected signature, the bill will officially create a new criminal offense known as human trafficking, making it a felony to use force, fraud or coercion to subject a person to labor, servitude or commercial sexual activity. It also makes it a crime to benefit financially from such activity. SB71 also provides for enhanced penalties when children are victims and establishes a task force to monitor human trafficking.
The immediate effect of this law, when enacted, will be to prevent
In the area of domestic violence, I am happy to report the passage of certain bills in our legislative package. House Bill 337, sponsored by Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, clarifies that a prosecutor or law enforcement official cannot ask or require a victim of a sexual offense to take a polygraph (lie-detector) test as a condition of investigating or charging such a crime. House Bill 227, sponsored by Rep. Rhonda King, clarifies that a victim of domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault does not have to pay fees associated with the process of prosecution; amends the definition of domestic abuse to include an incident of stalking or sexual assault whether committed by a household member or not; and clarifies self defense and mutual orders of protection and prohibits making information available on the Internet that would reveal the identity or location of the protected party.
Passage of these two important domestic-violence bills helps assure
In the continuing fight against drunken driving, House Bill 100, sponsored by Rep. Ken Martinez, closes a loophole to create misdemeanor penalties for tampering with an ignition interlock device.
Under consumer legislation, House Bill 199, sponsored by Lujan, amends the Construction Industries Licensing Act to require contractors to carry a $10,000 bond. This can be drawn upon by the consumer through the Construction Industries Division for code violations not corrected by the licensed contractor.
Last, but not least, is the passage of Senate Bill 281, the Sale of Recycled Metals Act, sponsored by Sen. Phil Griego. The bill creates a new act to regulate the sale of recycled aluminum, bronze, copper, brass or steel. When signed into law, it will require a registry and provide for penalties for violations.
As with any legislative session, a number of good and needed measures were left on the table. It is especially so during the short, 30-day session. But rather than complain about what didn’t get done, I prefer to celebrate the good things that were accomplished. For me and my staff it just means we will have more time to re-work and fine-tune our legislative agenda for the next Legislature.
As always, thank you for the opportunity to report on the work of the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office.
King is the state’s attorney general.