Republican Assemblywoman Lisa Krasner speaks to reporters Tuesday, March 2, 2021, at the Legislature after introducing Assembly Bill 143, which would create a task force to offer services for sex-trafficking victims.
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 | 2 a.m.
CARSON CITY— James Dold was only a middle schooler, but the trauma inflicted by the sexual abuse he suffered years before had long haunted him.
He told Nevada lawmakers on Tuesday that he brimmed with “resentment and anger” until the mother of one of his friends took an interest in his well-being to ultimately make matters worse.
She took advantage of the vulnerable child, buying him fast-food and taking him to concerts to gain his trust. Dold, then 13, opened up and told her about the sexual abuse he experienced when he was 5.
The moment “made it very easy for a skilled child predator to work their way into my life,” he said of the woman.
The sexual, physical and psychological abuse he suffered at the hands of that woman, Dold said, lasted for two years, in which he also stopped going to school, moved into the woman’s house and became a “domestic servant.”
Dold, CEO and founder of Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights for Kids, spoke in favor of Nevada Assembly Bill 143, which calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to partner with the Attorney General’s Office to develop a statewide plan to offer resources to victims of human trafficking, creating a statewide task force.
Such victim-focused task forces already exist on a regional level — one in Northern Nevada and the other spearheaded by Metro Police in Clark County, but Republican Assemblywoman Lisa Krasner of Washoe County — who introduced the bill to the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs — said the plan would centralize the efforts.
She said it would bolster collaboration throughout the state to offer medical, psychological, housing, education, job training, child care, and legal aid to victims, among other services.
The makeup of what the proposed task force would be was unclear, but the stakeholders offering the services now will have a say on how the group operates, Krasner said.
The bill would assign a human trafficking specialist with the Nevada Victims of Crime Compensation Program. An administrator with the Division of Child and Family Services would also “periodically review” the plan “to ensure it complies with the provisions of the bill.”
“We are in support of the intent, but unfortunately opposed to the bill” as of Tuesday, Metro lobbyist Chuck Callaway said.
Callaway said human trafficking looks different in the northern and southern parts of the state, and that Clark County accounts for 80% of the cases, noting that there’s “fear” that the bill creates “red tape” or “bureaucracy,” which could hamper efforts that already are working.
Krasner said the task force would also help underserved rural communities, noting that the designation of being a statewide effort would open up federal funding, such as that received by about half the U.S. states with similar classifications.
Dold, the sexual assault survivor, said he eventually realized the scope of the abuse he suffered and how the woman had “brainwashed” him. Coaches who were his mentors helped him reconnect with his family, and he moved back in, becoming the first high school graduate in the household.
He went on to graduate from UNLV and obtained a law degree from the University of Maryland.
He tried reporting the abuse, but at 27, the statute of limitations had expired, he said.
With his nonprofit, he’s devoted his life to being a child advocate. He’s also a board member of an anti-human trafficking organization, Survivor Alliance.
Easier access for resources for victims, like the bill would purportedly create, could help victims break away from the cycle of abuse, he said.
“I can’t tell you how important it is to have a plan in place for the delivery of services in the identification of trafficking survivors,” he told the assembly committee.
