Bill > A220

Introduced Session

This bill, which is designated as "Weston's Law," extends the crime of human trafficking, N.J.S.A.2C:13-8, to include the recruiting or coercing of juveniles to join or serve a criminal gang or drug trafficking scheme. Under current law, which encompasses both labor and sex trafficking, human trafficking occurs when a person knowingly holds, recruits, lures, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains another person, regardless of age, by any means, to engage in sexual activity or to provide other labor or services, using methods that include, among other things, acts that would constitute criminal coercion, under N.J.S.A.2C:13-5, or providing the victim with access to controlled dangerous substances (CDS). Human trafficking of a minor occurs when a person knowingly holds, recruits, lures, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains a minor by any means to engage in sexual activity using any method, whether or not the trafficker mistakenly believes that the victim is 18 years of age or older. In addition to any other legal remedy which may be awarded by law, under N.J.S.A.2C:13-8 and N.J.S.A.2C:13-8.1, a victim of human trafficking may be awarded civil damages and restitution in an amount equivalent to the value of the victim's labor or services, plus other appropriate relief by the court. Human trafficking is also defined as a type of racketeering activity under the State's organized crime statutes, N.J.S.A.2C:41-1 et seq. (also known as the State RICO law). The State RICO law allows the court to award triple damages to victims of racketeering activity who bring a civil suit against a person convicted of racketeering. Under the existing law concerning the use of juveniles to commit crimes, N.J.S.A.2C:24-9, it is a crime for a person 18 years of age or older to knowingly use, solicit, direct, hire, employ, or conspire with a person 17 years of age or younger to commit any crime, whether or not the adult mistakenly believed that the minor was at least 18 years of age. Additionally, under subsection d. of N.J.S.A.2C:33-28, it is a crime for a person to solicit, recruit, coerce, or threaten a person under 18 years of age to join or actively participate in a criminal street gang. Further, under N.J.S.A.2C:35-6, it is a crime for a person 18 years of age or older to knowingly use, solicit, direct, hire, or employ a person 17 years of age or younger in the operation of an illegal drug production facility, or in the unlawful manufacturing, distributing, or dispensing of CDS, or to possess CDS with intent to distribute. Under the bill, human trafficking with respect to labor or services is defined to include, but not be limited to, labor or services for a criminal street gang or in furtherance of racketeering activity. Human trafficking of a minor is defined to include, but not be limited to, using a minor to commit a crime in violation of N.J.S.A.2C:24-9, to participate in a criminal street gang in violation of N.J.S.A.2C:33-28, or to participate in a drug distribution scheme in violation of N.J.S.A.2C:35-6. The definition of criminal street gang is amended to include human trafficking as a type of gang related activity. In addition to criminal coercion, the bill adds other prohibited methods of inducing a victim into trafficking to include stalking (N.J.S.A.2C:12-10), invasion of privacy (N.J.S.A.2C:14-9), sexual extortion (N.J.S.A.2C:14-9.1), and theft by extortion (N.J.S.A.2C:20-5). The bill further amends the criminal coercion statute to expand coercive threats to include not only threats to a person's health, safety, business, calling, career, financial condition, reputation, or personal relationships, but also threats to a person's education, employment, or child custody. The bill also clarifies that a conviction for human trafficking will not merge, for sentencing purposes, with a conviction for employing a juvenile in a drug distribution scheme. Finally, the bill amends the civil damages provision of the State RICO law to clarify that persons damaged in their business or property by racketeering activity, who are entitled to sue a person convicted of racketeering, includes victims of human trafficking if the racketeering activity involved human trafficking. Finally, the bill adds human trafficking to the list of crimes for which a prosecutor may seek to waive a juvenile up from the Family Court to adult criminal court to be tried as an adult. Through the application of human trafficking law under the bill, it is the sponsor's intent to provide additional law enforcement tools to combat the exploitation of minors by the organized illegal drug trade. This bill is named in honor of Weston Fundner, who died in 2022 at the age of 15, from a fentanyl overdose after he was stalked by another teenager who was involved in the illegal drug trade, and coerced into accepting and ingesting a fentanyl pill.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Dawn Fantasia (R)*,  Michael Inganamort (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document