Santa Clara, CA
A Lake Tahoe journey turned into a trafficking nightmare. Two women in their 20s met a man named Robert Hendricks in Lake Tahoe in November 2008. Trusting the man, the two young women agreed to travel with him in his car to Reno. Instead, he drove them to Oakland. Hendricks forced the young women into prostitution. Later he sold both girls to a second man, Richardson, who also forced them into prostitution. The women were subjected to abuse, and one woman’s life was threatened. After weeks of abuse, one of the women contacted a relative in the Bay Area. Her relative notified the police, and both young women were rescued. Hendricks and Richardson were later arrested and pled guilty to human trafficking.
Source: Slaverymap.org, KLIV
http://kliv.com/pages/4993974.php?
Berkeley, CA
Lakireddy Bali Reddy, a prominent landlord in Berkeley, California, was convicted in 2001 for immigration fraud and trafficking minors for illegal sexual activity. On November 24, 1999, Reddy and a group of his employees were spotted carrying the unconscious body of a 17-year-old girl into a van, and trying to force an 18-year-old girl in as well. Marcia Poole, a passing motorist, stopped the kidnapping and alerted the police who came to the scene, but Reddy managed to resolve the situation, by claiming that the unconscious girl was the daughter of one of his employees. The 17-year-old and her 15-year-old sister, who had been lying in a nearby stairwell, had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning in a Reddy-owned apartment and were taken to nearby Alta Bates hospital, where the 17-year-old was pronounced dead. The police accepted Reddy's explanation of an accidental death, but the Berkeley High Jacket, the student newspaper of nearby Berkeley High School, found it odd that the girls had not been attending school.
Reporters Megan Greenwell and Iliana Montauk dug into the case and broke the story, exposing a web of criminal activity. Reddy had been exploiting the H-1B visa system for years to traffick poor Indian workers into the country as forced laborers. He brought in over 20 immigrants on the H-1B program, claiming that they were computer programmers. In many cases, he had the workers petition to bring in other trafficked workers into the US, claiming that they were family, and backing up the claims with falsified documents. The trafficked workers were generally made to work in Reddy's restaurants and apartment buildings. The two girls, supposed "daughters" of one of Reddy's "programmers," were not only forced to clean Reddy's buildings, but were also his underaged sex slaves.
Reddy was sentenced to eight years in prison, required to repay US$2 million dollars, and will be a registered sex offender upon his release. Two of his sons received lesser sentences for conspiracy to defraud the INS as part of plea agreements. Reddy was released April 2, 2008.[1] The Reddy family currently operates numerous apartment complexes in the Berkeley area under the names Reddy Realty and Everest Properties, as well as the Pasand restaurants in Berkeley and Santa Clara.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Aurora, Colorado
Sarah Khonaizan and Homaidan Al-Turki brought the victim from Indonesia to cook, clean, and care for the couple's children in their home, and paid her less than $2 for her work. Al-Turki also sexually assaulted the victim. She was forced to sleep on a mattress in the basement. The victim worked seven days a week from 2000 to 2004. Al-Turki told her she would be arrested by immigration officials if she tried to leave the home. The victim was recruited to work for Khonaizan through an employment agency in Saudi Arabia in 1999. Khonaizan and her children left Saudi Arabia three months later, leaving the victim to work in relatives' homes for the next, until she joined the family again in Colorado.
Michelle Hernandez, a friend of the couple, became suspicious of the situation after hearing stories from the victim. Immigration authorities then searched the home in November 2004, for suspected harboring of an illegal alien. The victim was detained when officials found her expired passport and visa hidden in a briefcase in the couple's closet.
The couple was indicted by a federal jury on charges of forced labor, document servitude, and harboring an illegal immigrant. Khonaizan pleaded guilty to harboring an illegal immigrant, and in exchange the charges of forced labor and document servitude were dropped. She received five years probation and was confined to her home until she leaves the country. Al-Turki was convicted of unlawful sexual contact by use of force or intimidation and of false imprisonment.
The victim was released and lived with Hernandez while pressing charges for sexual assault.
Additional posting by slaverymap.org on 01/27/2009
1/26/09 - Conviction of Al-Turki upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals. He was previously convicted on 12 counts of unlawful sexual contact and counts of false imprisonment, conspiracy, criminal extortion and theft. He was sentenced to 20 years to life.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Indianapolis, Indiana
A false promise of a $500-a-week baby-sitting job lured illegal immigrant Marlene Harpi from New York City to Indianapolis in 2001. But when she arrived here, the job turned out to be quite different. Police say Harpi was held in a Westside Indianapolis brothel and forced to have sex with at least 15 to 20 men a day. Two Hispanic teenage girls, who like Harpi had been recruited from New York, were also prisoners of the prostitution ring. Her captors warned her that she would "disappear" if she tried to flee. After three days at the West 16th Street house, Harpi was taken to a duplex on Sherman Drive just north of East Washington Street. There, her sex slavery continued for another three days. Harpi then returned to the West 16th Street house, from which she escaped and contacted police after roughly a week. She gave police enough evidence to search both homes and arrest her captors on charges of criminal confinement and promoting prostitution.
Prosecutors opened a case but had to drop charges against her alleged captors because of its unusual nature. They also lost Harpi, their chief witness. She became afraid and left a hotel in which she was placed for her own safety. Marion County prosecutors called in the FBI after Harpi ran away, but agents were unable to find her. Barbara Crawford, the prosecutor assigned to the case, said she has been told Harpi went back to her native country. Prosecutors, believing the case was weak without Harpi, moved in April 2002 to dismiss all charges against her five captors in Marion Superior Court.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Denison, Iowa
Leonard Russell recruited two girls from Nebraska to engage in commercial sexual activity, including prostitution, and to perform at strip clubs. The two victims, ages 15 and 16, were runaways and were harbored by Russell. The victims testified that they met Russell in Omaha, Nebraska on August 20, 2007 after they ran away from a juvenile home located in Fremont, Nebraska. They were recruited to help at 19-year old prostitute, named Marcia Ryan. The victims were then transported to Davenport, Iowa, then Rockford, Illinois, and finally back to Denison, Iowa. They were forced to engage in prostitution and perform at strip clubs, one of which was Big Earl’s Key Club in Denison, Iowa. They were forced to give their earnings to Russell and Ryan to pay for their food, shelter, transportation, and clothes. One victim was with Russell for eight days, and the other for 10 days. Investigations showed that they had been advertised on the internet as prostitutes.
The police received an anonymous tip that caused them to find one of the victims at Big Earl’s. The other victim was told by Russell to travel by bus to Washington to meet with his cousin to learn how to solicit sex. When she arrived in Washington police removed her from the situation. Both victims received aftercare.
Russell was found guilty by a jury of two counts of human trafficking. Russell was also convicted of one count of ongoing criminal conduct and two counts of pandering. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Ryan was also arrested on charges of human trafficking and awaiting trail.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Edinburg, Texas
Eight Mexican nationals pled guilty to confining women in alien smuggling trailers or “safe houses” near the US-Mexico border (specifically Edinburg, Texas). They raped and beat the women repeatedly. Juan Carlos Soto was the ringleader and his two brothers Armando Soto-Huarto and Jose Corona-Soto along with Martin Cortez-Gutierrez, Javier Olvera-Hernandez, Jose Angel Pineda-Cortez, Jose-Luis Villa-Zavala were sentenced on various trafficking and forced servitude-related charges.Jose Corona-Soto, Javier Olvera-Hernandez Jose-Luis Villa-Zavala, and Jose Angel Pineda-Cortez each pled guilty during the summer of 2003 to alien smuggling and related charges. Juan Carlos Soto, Armando Soto-Huarto, and Martin Cortez-Gutierrez pleaded guilty in August 2003 to charges of involuntary servitude and human trafficking offenses.
February 2003, local law enforcement encountered two women who had been raped and left for dead as punishment following their attempted escape from the defendants. Federal law enforcement agents identified two additional female victims and rescued them. A joint Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Federal Bureau of Investigation initiative dismantled the trafficking operation and arrested the defendants. In 2003, four defendants pled guilty to transporting aliens; two defendants pled guilty to involuntary servitude charges; and one defendant pled guilty to conspiracy to commit involuntary servitude.
Seven men were sentenced to a combined 51 years in prison on trafficking and forced servitude crimes. They were charged with federal civil rights violations, extortion, hostage-taking and immigration offenses; The defendants received sentences ranging from 4 months to more than 23 years of incarceration. Three of the 5 defendants were ordered to pay restitution to their victims.
The victims have been relocated to safe quarters and are receiving immigration and refugee assistance provided for by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA); The victims, then aged 19, 20, 22, and 40, are now safe and receiving help from NGOs who are grantees of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Burnsville, Minnesota
The prostitution ring exploiting minors was revealed after a victim confided in Detective Kurt Bratulich, who worked as a Police Liaison at one of the victim's schools.
The person operating the prostitution ring was Justine Alex Reisdorf, a 19-year old Eagan woman. Reisdorf, who was a victim of prostitution herself, was recruited by her previous pimp to become a Madam and begin running her own business. Reisdorf, also known as "Deja A. McDone," began operating a prostitution ring of high school students through a townhouse, which eventually moved into the Burnsville motel where she worked. Reisdorf solicited prostitution services of both adults and juveniles on Craigslist and later on a telephone chat line known as "Live Links." Investigators were able to identify three underage girls and two adults as victims.
In December of 2006, Eagan Detective Kurt Bratulich, who worked as a Police Liaison at one of the victim's schools, learned about the case after a victim confided in him. The victim came forward about the prostitution ring operating out of a townhouse at the time. From the tip, investigators were able to execute a warrant of the townhouse. Unfortunately Reisdorf had already packed up and police were unable to find any useful information. After more interviews from victims, Detective Bratulich was able to build a strong case and by March of 2007, the FBI got involved. Because the internet and the soliciting of juveniles were involved, the investigation turned into a federal case. Reisdorf continued to post services on Craigslist. After more interviews from victims and tracing Reisdorf's ads to her computer, by June of 2007, investigators learned she was securing rooms for service at a Burnsville motel where she worked. Reisdorf was eventually arrested in June of 2007 at her Eagan home when a search warrant was executed.
After Reisdorf was arrested in June of 2007, she remained in jail until January of 2008 when she was sentenced to five years in federal prison, the maximum allowed by law.
The underage victims were referred to the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center (JWRC), a foundation which offers education and assistance to victims through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Information about the adult victims is unknown.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Gresham, Oregon
Steve and Bo Kline, owners of Typhoon!, which operates Thai restaurants in Oregon (Portland, Gresham, Beaverton) and Washington (Seattle and Redmond). In a federal lawsuit, Typhoon! was alleged to have illegally classified the couple as exempt from overtime laws; worked them an average of 10 hours a day, six days a week, without overtime pay, for more than four years; made them perform the Klines' household chores and errands; and threatened to have them deported if they left their jobs.
Once the two cooks quit Typhoon!, Steve Kline notified U.S. immigration authorities that the two chefs were no longer in compliance with the terms of their employment visas--called "E-2" visas--granted by the INS. Two weeks after quitting Typhoon!, the two chefs were arrested by the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service at Portland International Airport, where they had taken their baby in order to send him back to Thailand. The two chefs were held in the INS lockup from Dec. 12 to 16.
In August of 2004, The Typhoon restaurant chain agreed to pay 33 former and current chefs more than $170,300 in back wages. Chookeat Khumyam, 34 and Uraiwan Wirunchiwa, 35, have since returned to Thailand. They are currently catering for a relative's business.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Joy Friedman was forced to have sex at age 13 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She worked as a prostitute for 23 years, and during this time, she became addicted to drugs in order to cope with the emotional damage. With the help of Breaking Free, a non-profit organization serving women and girls who are victims of prostitution, abuse, and sex trafficking, Joy has been out of prostitution for nearly nine
years. She now works to help girls and women forced into prostitution and sex trafficking to do the same. Joy is an advocate for perpetrator accountability, and she supports public identification and prosecution of "johns".
Source: Darcy Pohland, Polaris Project
Santa Barbara, CA
The traffickers were Leonard Charles Rivers, age 44 at time of investigation and Tanya Leann Johnson, age 26 at time of investigation. Rivers found the victim, a runaway minor female living on the streets, enticed her with promises of a better life, led her to prostitution, and then threatened to beat her if she did not make money for him. Police responded to a routine disturbance call at Quality Inn on upper State Street on Dec. 12, 2006, and found a 16 year old girl who gave false identity information. Information was gained from the girl that led the police to where Rivers was hiding in Las Vegas. Rivers was arrested on March 12, 2006, and flown back to Santa Barbara where he was put in the county jail.
Law enforcement has placed the runaway girl back with her family. Santa Barbara police detective Chad Hunt obtained an arrest warrant for Rivers, and US Marshalls tracked Rivers down in Las Vegas. Rivers and Johnson were arrested. Rivers was charged with enticing a minor to commit lewd acts, pandering, and human trafficking. Johnson has been charged for pimping and pandering a minor, evading arrest amounting to a felony, and being an unlicensed driver. According to the latest report, the girl is back with her family in Orange County and is receiving counseling.
More Information: Santa Barbara Newsroom
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Vacaville, California
Vacaville police say that a 23-year-old woman was held against her will, off and on for more than a year, from 12/01/2007 to 03/12/2009 and forced into prostitution. The alleged trafficker, Sean Grant, is charged with false imprisonment, human trafficking and criminal threats. It started back in October of 2007, when police say the woman started dating Grant, age 24. Authorities say if she didn't follow the suspect's rules, she was beaten. "Grant was arrested, accused of holding a woman hostage and forcing her into prostitution. He had threatened her family with harm if she did not return. When she returned to save her family, she was beaten severely as to be taught a lesson that she was not to try and leave," police told CBS13. ”It's our understanding that she was beaten and forced to go to a certain part of the home and remain there. If she attempted to leave or to get food or go to the bathroom, she would be beaten," police say.
Officers showed up to a Vacaville apartment complex on a disturbance call yesterday, and when they arrived they say 24-year-old Sean Grant didn't cooperate with detectives. Instead, Grant tried to escape out a second story window. Police caught him, which sparked an investigation and led them to a badly beaten woman. "He would beat her with it an instrument to inflict pain to gain her compliance," detectives tell CBS13. Police say Grant also put her on Craigslist, selling sex, and forced her to prostitute herself on the streets locally in and around the Bay Area. "She started keeping a tally sheet so when she would go to the authorities -- its our understanding that he located the tally sheet, he destroyed the tally sheet and she was beaten as a result of doing that," say authorities.
Grant was taken into custody and booked into the Solano County Jail. His bail was $150,000. Grant is charged with false imprisonment, human trafficking and criminal threats. Detectives say while this woman has been through so much she is doing well and she is safe.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Walnut Creek, CA
Mabelle de la Rosa Dann, also known as Mabelle Crabbe, held 30-year old Zoraida Pena-Canal in captivity for nearly 19 months, from 07/15/2006 to 02/15/2008, in apartment #64 of the Cypress Creek Apartments in Walnut Creek, California. Dann, who works as a real estate agent in Walnut Creek, promised Pena-Canal a job caring for her three children as a nanny in the USA that would pay $600/mo and a private residence. Instead, Pena-Canal worked around the clock cleaning Dann's apartment, doing laundry, cooking meals and tending to Dann's three boys. Pena-Canal initially slept on the living room sofa in Dann's apartment, then subsequently was banished to sleep on the living room floor. Instead of paying her nanny/house keeper, Dann charged her $15,000 for living expenses, which she kept in her debt. Pena-Canal Dann forced her to smash her radio and TV so that she would not listen to Spanish-speaking radio and get information about the USA that might help her. Dann regularly abused her servant verbally and physically, and took away her identity documents, money and bank cards. She threatened to turn Pena-Canal over to the police if she tried to escape. Dann paid a third-party agent to secure a visitor visa for her victim, though she always intended for Pena-Canal to work in her home.
Teachers at Indian Valley Elementary School in Walnut Creek, where Dann's children attend school, first became suspicious of Pena-Canal's situation when they would see her walk the children to school in the same set of clothes everyday, and usually appeared "unkempt." Several teachers, including Cevina Targum, eventually befriended Pena-Canal and she confided her story to the teacher. Targum contacted the nonprofit immigrant aid group La Raza, who helped extract Pena-Canal and contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
ICE Special Agent Kit Welsh has been closely involved in the intervention, and bringing criminal charges against Dann. She told KTVU-TV in the SF Bay Area, "It's even been a real eye-opener to me to learn of people being held in just your average suburban homes. It's modern-day slavery." The case, known as US vs. Mabelle de la Rosa Dann, is still awaiting trial at this date.
Pena-Canal is receiving shelter and legal aid. She will stay in the USA at least until she can testify in the court case against Dann, and her long-term status (and desire) are still unknown.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
Brookfield, Wisconsin
Jefferson Calimlim, Sr. and his wife Elnora, doctors in Milwaukee, recruited and brought the victim from the Philippines to the U.S. in 1985 when she was 19 years old. The victim was not allowed to go outside of the couple's home, communicate or socialize, and had to hide in the basement whenever non-family members were at the house. The victim was told she would be arrested and deported is she was found. The couple told the victim that her wages would be kept in an account, however she had no idea where the account was and could not access it.
The case was initially reported to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement national call hotline in June 2004, when the victim was 38 years old. She was removed from the house by a federal search warrant.
In May 2007, the couple was convicted of forcing a woman to work as a domestic servant and of illegally harboring her for 19 years. Each was sentenced to four years in prison. Also, the couple's son, Jefferson Calimlim Jr. was sentenced to 120 days of home confinement, three years of supervised release, and a $5,000 fine for illegal harboring of the victim.
Source: http://www.slaverymap.org
