California lawmakers sent a high-profile bill to classify child sex trafficking as a serious felony to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk on Wednesday after the legislature unanimously approved the once-divisive measure.

The California legislature passed SB 14 in its final vote of approval in the State Senate to increase penalties for child traffickers, which allows state authorities to pursue life sentences under its “three strikes” law in some cases.

BREAKING: The California legislature passes bill to classify child sex trafficking as serious felony, which would keep repeat traffickers in prison longer.

The bill now heads to Gov. Newsom’s desk after a final, unanimous vote of approval in the State Senate. The vote: pic.twitter.com/ryc5zey8ZN

— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) September 13, 2023

“SB 14 will serve to protect future generations by stopping people from engaging in this horrific crime,” Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield, who wrote the bill, said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “SB 14 will send a direct message to those committing this horrific crime of selling our children for sex in the state of California that we will no longer stand by and tolerate this, and you will serve a lengthy prison sentence.”

Democrat state Senator Susan Rubio of Baldwin Park reportedly said the passage of the bill sends a message to victims that California lawmakers “see you . . . hear you . . . [and] are here to help you.”

State Senators had unanimously passed the bill earlier this year, but it became controversial among State Assembly Democrats over the summer when the left-wing members of the Public Safety Committee took issue with certain language in the legislation that could potentially prosecute victims forced to help traffickers.

Grove reportedly said in response to the criticism from Democrat lawmakers that she changed the bill several times to reconcile the concerns.

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“We don’t want anyone who is a victim of violent crime like human trafficking to be charged or put in prison for that,” Grove said. “That is not my intent — that is not what the bill says.”

After facing heavy backlash nationally, including from Governor Newsom, the Assembly Public Safety Committee reversed course and approved the measure in a forced emergency hearing days after initially blocking it.

“When proposed policies punish more individuals than intended, the collateral damage to specific communities can cause a domino effect of irreparable injustice,” Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) said during an Assembly debate before he voted for SB 14 in July.

Newsom and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) reportedly weighed in on the matter and encouraged the committee members to approve the measure.

“Good to see. Thank you, @RobertRivas_CA for your leadership,” Newsom wrote in an X-post after the Assembly passed SB 14.

Good to see.

Thank you, @RobertRivas_CA for your leadership. https://t.co/usNArT5bK1

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 12, 2023

Newsom told reporters in July that he had contacted Senator Grove in appreciation of her “efforts on this and wanted to make sure she knew that today,” adding that the issue is one “I care deeply about. Have since my time as (San Francisco) mayor, as a supervisor, working then with District Attorney Kamala Harris.”

The California governor, who signaled his support for the legisaltion, has an October 14 deadline to sign or veto SB 14 and hundreds of other bills.

Seattle police union rank-and-file leaders are under investigation after an officer was heard on his body camera footage laughing and joking about a woman fatally struck by a separate patrol cruiser earlier this year. The officer who was recorded has stated that he was mocking the callousness of those who would litigate “a tragedy.”

Officer Daniel Auderer, vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, was responding to an officer-involved collision on January 23, where officer Kevin Dave struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula while driving over 70mph in a 25mph speed zone to a report of an overdose.

Kandula was walking across the intersection, and the impact from the vehicle reportedly threw her over 100 feet. The 23-year-old woman from India died later that night at Harborview Medical Center.

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) publicized the footage on Monday in the wake of a fatal collision after learning of the conversation between Auderer and Officer Mike Solan, who is the Seattle police union’s president. According to the SPD, authorities identified the footage after a department employee voiced concern about “the nature of statements heard” on the video.

In the video, Auderer is only heard in the conversation with Solan.

“I mean, he was going 50 (MPH). That’s not out of control. That’s not reckless for a trained driver,” Auderer said, adding that he doesn’t believe “she was thrown 40 feet either.”

“But she is dead,” he said. He later laughs and says, “No, it’s a regular person.”

“Yeah, just write a check,” he said and laughed again.

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“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway,” Auderer said, misidentifying Kandula’s age. “She had limited value.”

The King County Medical Examiner later determined Kandula’s cause of death was due to multiple blunt force injuries.

According to conservative talk radio 770 KTTH, Auderer reported that Solan “lamented” Kandula’s death in their initial conversation, saying it was unfortunate it would “turn into lawyers arguing ‘the value of human life.'”

“I responded with something like: ‘She’s 26 years old. What value is there? Who cares?’ I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers,” Auderer said, according to KTTH. “I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy.”

Auderer acknowledged, according to KTTH, that anyone listening to the body-camera recording “would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of human life,” adding that the comment “was not made with malice or a hard heart.”

Ashok Mandula, Kandula’s uncle in Texas, told The Seattle Times: “The family has nothing to say.”

“Except I wonder if these men’s daughters or granddaughters have value,” he said. “A life is a life.”

After realizing his body camera captured the conversation, Auderer self-reported his comments to the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) watchdog agency, according to KTTH.

The agency confirmed to The Seattle Times that an investigation was underway after SPD attorney Rebecca Boatright emailed the OPA on August 2.

The Seattle Community Police Commission (CPC) issued a statement Monday following the video’s release, calling the conversation between Auderer and Solan “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive.”

“The video was appalling, and it was heartbreaking and incredibly insensitive,” Joel Merkel, Co-Chair of CPC, said. “Just hearing someone who works at SPD say that about a human life moments after she was killed by being struck by a Seattle police vehicle is absolutely heartbreaking.”

“Today was the first time anyone at CPC saw this video,” the statement continued. “The CPC is really focused on helping ensure that the community can trust its police department. The community deserves a police department that shares its values and that it can trust. Incidents like this are things that break trust. It’s a really big setback, and it really speaks to some of the issues with culture and elements at SPD and also resistance to some of the accountability measures.”

Kandula was set to graduate with a master’s degree in information systems from the Seattle campus of Northeastern University, according to The Seattle Times. Her family told the outlet that she was working toward supporting her mother in India.