Houston pimp sentenced to 405 months in prison in child sex trafficking case

by khou.com staff
khou.com
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 1:28 PM

Updated Friday, Nov 12 at 1:30 PM

HOUSTON—A Houston pimp was sentenced to 405 months in prison Friday for sex trafficking of a minor, transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and coercion of an adult to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Barry Lernard Davis, also known as “Sir Lewis,” was convicted in March 2010. In addition to the 405-month sentence, he was also given a 240-month sentence for the coercion charge, to be served concurrently.

Prosecutors said Davis lured a 16-year-old girl and a grown woman into a life of prostitution with promises of food, shelter and material possessions. Once the victims were under his influence, he controlled them with physical violence, sexual violence and death threats.

The 16-year-old victim was a high school student in Pasadena when Davis convinced her to prostitute herself, prosecutors said. Her family had reported her missing.

She testified that she was photographed nude, and those pictures were used as online ads for prostitution.

According to testimony, Davis drove the teen across state lines and solicited men to have sex with her for money in a New Orleans hotel.

The teen said Davis was aware that she was underage at the time, and also that she was pregnant.

The adult victim also testified at the trial, recounting brutal beatings at the hands of Davis, including one incident in which he broke her nose and forced her to prostitute herself minutes later.

The adult victim told the jury about the underworld of pimps and prostitutes, known as “the game.” She also detailed the “rules” that the prostitutes and pimps adhere to.

Her testimony was confirmed by FBI special agents.

They said Davis’ behavior showed he was fully engaged in the world of pimps and prostitutes.

According to testimony, Davis “branded” both victims with tattoos of his name and initials.

At Friday’s sentencing hearing, the teen victim’s mother told the jury about the hold Davis had on her daughter, and how traumatic the ordeal has been for the family.

Davis has been in federal custody since his arrest in July 2009, where prosecutors said he will remain to serve his sentence.

This is becoming way to common……

Here are two different stories of human trafficking cases in where the victims were recruited from the Philippines to work here in the U.S. Time and time again, FCAHT and other anti trafficking organizations find these types of cases. However, there is not enough attention paid on these types of cases. It is important that everyone understand that there is more than just sex trafficking occurring in the U.S. Labor trafficking is running rampant in this country and the community is so busy talking about sex trafficking that they are allowing this to become an even bigger issue. At the rate things are going, you are more than likely going to come face to face with a victim of labor trafficking than you will of sex trafficking.
Please take the time to learn more about this issue and help FCAHT and other anti trafficking organizations in advocating for an end to labor trafficking!

11 Pinoy victims of human trafficking rescued
By Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star) Updated November 14, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (0)

MANILA, Philippines – Eleven Filipino victims of human trafficking in the United States who were made to endure sub-human and sub-standard working conditions have been rescued.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has offered its assistance in repatriating the 11 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

The 11 OFWs were recruited in the Philippines by Adman Human Resources Placement Inc. and were originally brought to Biloxi, Mississippi, where they were made to endure sub-human and sub-standard working conditions.

The OFWs are now in Los Angeles where they are currently under the care of a Filipino-American pastor.

The recruitment license of Adman Human Resources Placement Inc. has since been cancelled by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

The DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs has authorized the release of funds to cover the repatriation costs of the 11 OFWs.

The Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles continues to extend assistance to the 11 displaced OFWs and is ready to facilitate their repatriation back to the Philippines should they wish to go home.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), together with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Washington D.C., have also provided assistance to the OFWs pending the filing of formal charges against the alleged illegal traffickers.

However, the 11 OFWS, the DFA said, had earlier refused assistance from the POLO, the Catholic Charities in Mississippi, and other entities.
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Human trafficking of Filipinos in Haiti
By Jun Medina
INQUIRER.net

WASHINGTON DC, United States—At least 11 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remained stranded in Haiti after they were duped by alleged human traffickers into paying as much as P500,000 each for bogus high-paying jobs in the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation.

MacArthur Corsino, the Philippine ambassador to Cuba, said that the 11 jobless OFWs, who were part of a group of at least 21 victims of human trafficking, have been left to fend for themselves in Haiti since March 2010 by their recruiters.

The Philippine embassy in Havana has jurisdiction over Haiti.

“The question is why the illegal recruiters—despite our reports and despite their being exposed in the news—are still able to continue their evil recruitment after so many months, and so are able to continue victimizing hapless Filipinos,” Corsino said.

Corsino decried the continued illegal trafficking of Filipino workers who end up being a burden to the embassy and the small Filipino community that takes them under its care.

“Imagine, it’s essentially the same story [we get] from the victims since March 2010 up to now. That is, the victims each shell out around P500,000 to the recruiters who promise them jobs of $3,000 a month in Haiti, then end up stranded and penniless in Port-au-Prince without the said jobs at all,” he said in an email.

This supposed placement fee is even higher than the P300,000 (equivalent to almost $6,500) collected from each of the alleged victims of human trafficking now stranded in Los Angeles.

The alleged traffickers were identified as Marla Consolacion, who also uses the aliases Marla Wong and Marla Habas, and her assistant named Roma Maning, whose father Leo works in Haiti.

These alleged recruiters claim to have international connections through a certain Luzviminda Maning of New York who allegedly operates with an American partner.

The stranded workers said that they were made to believe that the recruiters have connections at the Haitian embassy in Manila who help facilitate travel documentation, including visas.

Haiti has a consulate in the Philippines.

Members of the small, closely-knit Filipino community have opened their homes to the stranded workers and helped them find jobs, which are not easy in a country still reeling from a devastating earthquake that flattened most of Port-au-Prince about a year ago.

“Yes, members of the [community] are trying to help them, but we can only do so much,” said Dolor Bagadiong, wife of Filipino community president Frankie Bagadiong, on Wednesday from the Haitian capital during a live chat via Yahoo! Messenger.

“But jobs are scarce and hard to find here, so I find it very strange why the Department of Labor and Employment is still allowing the deployment of workers to Haiti,” she added.

Bagadiong cited the case of Jess Laurenaria, who told the Filipino community and Philippine embassy officials how he was duped into paying P550,000 to the recruiters because they assured him that he would get a managerial job that pays $3,000 a month.

It was too late for Laurenaria to discover upon reaching Port-au-Prince that the company that was supposed to hire him did not exist, forcing him to seek shelter with fellow Filipinos in Port-au-Prince.

“Talamak talaga yang illegal recruitment dito (Illegal recruitment is widespread here),” Bagadiong said in Filipino.

Laurenaria, one of those who opted to stay and look for a job, was helped by a member of the Filipino community and eventually got hired by a local plastics company but the salary was only a portion of the $3,000 he was aspiring for.

Corsino said that the Philippine embassy, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, has referred reports and complaints of illegal recruitment in Haiti to the Philippine labor department and law-enforcement authorities.

Rescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and

Excellent article written by Janie A. Chuang.

Janie A. Chuang
American University – Washington College of Law

University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 158, 2010

Abstract:

In the decade since it became a priority on the United States’
national agenda, the issue of human trafficking has spawned enduring
controversy. New legal definitions of “trafficking” were codified in
international and U.S. law in 2000, but what conduct qualifies as
“trafficking” remains hotly contested. Despite shared moral outrage
over the plight of trafficked persons, debates over whether
trafficking encompasses voluntary prostitution continue to rend the
anti-trafficking advocacy community – and are as intractable as
debates over abortion and other similarly contentious social issues.
Attempts to equate trafficking with slavery invite both disdain and
favor: they are often rejected for their insensitive and legally
inaccurate conflation with transatlantic slavery yet simultaneously
embraced for capturing the moral urgency of addressing this human
rights problem. The anti-trafficking movement itself has been attacked
by those who believe it is built on specious statistics concerning the
problem’s magnitude and by others who think it undermines human rights
goals by drawing attention away from migrants’ rights and efforts to
combat slavery in all its contemporary forms.

U.S. law and policy have fueled controversy over anti-trafficking
strategies, both at home and abroad. In 2000, the United States led
negotiations over a new international law on trafficking, the United
Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children (the U.N. Trafficking
Protocol). At the same time, the United States enacted a comprehensive
domestic law on trafficking, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of
2000 (TVPA). Both instruments define trafficking as the movement or
recruitment of men, women, or children, using force, fraud, or
coercion, for the purpose of subjecting them to involuntary servitude
or slavery in one or more of a wide variety of sectors (for example,
agriculture, construction, or commercial sex). These legal definitions
reflect a concerted effort to move away from traditional perspectives
that narrowly defined trafficking as the movement or recruitment of
women or girls into the sex sector and toward a broader understanding
of the problem as also involving the exploitation of women, men, and
children in non-sex sectors.

Although trafficking into non-sex sectors arguably accounts for the
larger proportion of trafficking activity, anti-trafficking laws and
policies – both within the United States and abroad – have nonetheless
remained focused on sex-sector trafficking and prostitution. This
focus reflects the potent influence of prostitution-reform debates on
the anti-trafficking movement. Those debates have embroiled anti-
trafficking advocates and policymakers in a struggle over whether
prostitution is inherently coercive, and therefore a form of
trafficking, or whether the trafficking label should be applied only
to instances of forced prostitution. The Bush Administration adopted
the former position, marking the increasing influence of the “neo-
abolitionists” – an unlikely alliance of feminists, conservatives, and
evangelical Christians who have used the anti-trafficking movement to
pursue abolition of prostitution around the globe. This Article
examines the prostitution-reform debates on U.S. anti-trafficking
policy and assesses their effects in the international arena. Part I
describes the prostitution-reform debates and their influence on
efforts to develop international and U.S. anti-trafficking laws and
policies. The discussion spotlights how the prostitution-reform
debates have impeded broader efforts by anti-trafficking advocates to
prioritize protection of trafficked persons’ human rights in the face
of the United States’ emphasis on an aggressive criminal justice
response to trafficking.

Part II describes the ways in which the neo-abolitionists have gained
dominance during the formative years of global anti-trafficking law
and policy development, largely transforming the anti-trafficking
movement into an anti-prostitution campaign. The discussion traces how
the neo-abolitionists have successfully promoted their anti-
prostitution agenda worldwide through targeted legal reforms that
condition U.S. financial assistance to governments, NGOs, and
government contractors on the recipients’ commitment to an anti-
prostitution stance. The discussion further illustrates how the neo-
abolitionists have shaped common understandings of the problem of
human trafficking by deploying a reductive narrative of trafficking
that simplistically depicts trafficking as involving women and girls
forced into “sexual slavery” by social deviants. This Article argues
that this control over the meaning of trafficking has been perhaps the
greatest of the neo-abolitionists’ gains because it has significantly
influenced how anti-trafficking interventions are constructed and
implemented on the ground.

Part III assesses the consequences of the neo-abolitionists’ rise to
power in the trafficking field. The discussion highlights how neo-
abolitionist legal reforms and the reductive narrative have promoted
criminal justice responses that target prostitution and leave
unquestioned the exploitative labor practices and migrant abuse that
characterize the majority of trafficking cases. Such responses neglect
to address the pervasive labor-migration problem resulting from
globalization trends that drive lower-income women and men into
patterns of risky migration and exploitative informal-sector
employment. Moreover, by invoking comparisons to slavery and
stereotypes of innocent, naïve Third World women, neo-abolitionist
discursive practices sustain a crusader impulse that resists a self-
critical evaluation and assessment of the effects of neo-abolitionist
policymaking on its target populations. In turn, this impulse has
allowed ideology to overshadow social science data–both qualitative
and quantitative – that call into question the effectiveness of neo-
abolitionist strategies in combating prostitution, much less
trafficking.

This Article does not aim to provide authoritative solutions to the
trafficking problem. Nor does it seek to resolve debates over
prostitution reform. I share a commitment to ending human trafficking
but am suspicious of simple solutions and anti-trafficking policies
not supported by empirical evidence. This perspective leaves me at
times at odds with both those who believe that all prostitution is
necessarily forced and those who believe that prostitution is just
like any other form of work. In my view, both perspectives lack an
empirical basis and neither provides a solid foundation for effective
anti-trafficking policy. Trafficking is a complicated problem,
requiring nuanced solutions that will vary depending on context.

This Article instead offers a historical account and critical
assessment of the prostitution-reform debates’ considerable influence
on anti-trafficking law and policy development over the last decade.
It does so to expose the difficulties of translating ideology –
understood here as closely held moral and ethical beliefs – into
effective governance strategies. There is an urgent need to adopt and
emphasize policies that are guided foremost by a pragmatic, evidence-
based approach that grapples with the real-world complexities of human
trafficking. This empirical approach requires us to set aside our
narrow ideological commitments and to objectively evaluate the actual
impact that “anti-trafficking” interventions have both on those they
purport to help and on the vulnerable populations they collaterally
affect.

Two men charged with human trafficking in Providence

By Amanda Milkovits

Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE –– Two New York men who the police say came to Rhode Island because of a loophole legalizing indoor prostitution are now the first to be prosecuted for human trafficking and enslavement since prostitution was made illegal in the state.

Andy Fakhoury and Joseph Defeis, both 23, are accused of trafficking and enslaving teenagers as young as 16 and putting them to work as prostitutes in an Elmhurst apartment, in the heart of a block of college rental apartments.

The crimes came to light last month, the police say, after a friend of a 19-year-old woman contacted the Providence police and said the teenager was being forced into prostitution.

Providence police Maj. Thomas F. Oates III said the case then became “a rescue mission.”

Fakhoury is accused of raping the 19-year-old and having her work as a prostitute from July through mid-October. He and Defeis, his roommate, are accused of bringing a 16-year-old girl to work as a prostitute in Rhode Island from 2007 to 2009, according to a police affidavit.

The police are investigating whether a third woman, 22, was recruited and forced into prostitution by the two Yonkers, N.Y., men, who were living in the Elmhurst apartment. All three women are originally from out of state.

“This is hardly a victimless crime,” said Police Chief Dean M. Esserman. “The women who are manipulated into service are exploited themselves. The Providence Police Department is treating these young women as victims.”

Lt. Michael Correia, the head of the narcotics and organized crime unit that investigated the case, had testified in favor of the new law, passed last year, outlawing indoor prostitution. He said it proved its worth in this case because the detectives could now investigate the illegal activity.

After the law change, the Providence police and other departments were trained on how to work with victims of human trafficking. Correia said the training was invaluable when the door opened at the apartment in Elmhurst, and police found themselves facing a woman they believed needed their help. This time, the officers weren’t there to arrest her.

“They’re victims of a bigger crime,” Correia said.

From the beginning, Correia said, the police saw the woman as a victim. The first step was to get her out of the situation, he said. And then, he said, the investigators would build the human-trafficking case.

The blond 19-year-old had had her picture in the adult section of backpage.com, an Internet site with classified advertisements. She also had a fake name, an offer for “upscale gentlemen,” and a phone number with a Massachusetts area code, according to an affidavit and police report.

Within a few days, Sgt. Patrick McNulty, Detectives Peter Conley and Richard Ruggiero found her inside a second-floor apartment at 123 Pinehurst Ave., near Providence College. They arranged for her to meet an undercover detective on the pretense of a “date.” When she offered to perform sex acts for $150 or $250, the police took her into custody.

Fakhoury, who was in the next bedroom, and Defeis were also arrested, because the police found about a pound of marijuana and packaging material inside the apartment, Correia said.

While the men were in handcuffs, the woman was not — a departure from the usual way police deal with prostitutes. Instead, Correia said, she was brought to the station to speak with police and an advocate from Day One, a Providence resource center whose mission is to reduce the prevalence of sexual abuse and violence.

This new approach came from training sessions conducted by Day One, the Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking, the attorney general’s office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Laura Pisaturo, the director of advocacy and legal services at Day One, said that the training teaches law enforcement and others to look beyond the accusation of prostitution to see whether someone is a victim of human trafficking. Speaking in general terms, Pisaturo gave several examples of what the police should consider. Is the person being isolated from family and friends? How did he or she get into prostitution? Do they get the money? Are they being forced into paying off debts?

Correia remembered looking at the young woman, who was upset and embarrassed. “I told her, I know it seems horrible, but today is more hopeful than horrible,” Correia recalled. “Today, you have a chance.”

That was Oct. 15. Nearly two weeks later, Fakhoury was arrested on three felony charges of trafficking and three felony charges of involuntary servitude; each charge carries up to 20 years in prison and up to $20,000 in fines. Fakhoury is being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions without bail on those charges and a charge of first-degree sexual assault. He waived his right to a bail hearing on Friday.

Defeis was charged on Oct. 28 with one count of trafficking and one count of involuntary servitude. He was released on $10,000 surety bail on Nov. 5. Both he and Fakhoury are also facing drug charges. (The Journal does not identify victims of sexual assault.)

The young woman has been reunited with her family, but the police believe there are more cases out there.

“We know it’s happening. It’s an under-reported crime,” Correia said. “If anyone knows of victims of human trafficking, reach out to law enforcement.”

This is a wonderdul article written by an LSU Student

Most people in this country feel as though if we legalize prostitution, that sex trafficking will go away. However, there is still no arguments I have heard or read that has help me agree with this argument. At this time from the research that FCAHT has read, it seems as though legalizing prostitution would have the reverse effect. For example, in Germany, once the legalized prostitution, sex trafficking cases increased by 70%. This is not a good thing. If prostitution in America were to be legalized, our numbers would definitely double.
Please read this guest column and see if you too agree with this LSU student.

Guest Column: Making prostitution legal is a step in the wrong direction
By Jennie Armstrong

Special to The Daily Reveille

Published: Sunday, November 14, 2010

Updated: Sunday, November 14, 2010 23:11

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Editor’s note: This guest column was written in response to Zachary Davis’ Nov. 7 column “Marijuana and prostitution should be legal, taxable in U.S.”

It seems there’s been a lot of talk in America lately about changes in major social laws — everything from legalizing marijuana and eradicating the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to legalizing and regulating prostitution.

While I respect and many times agree with the idealism that more social freedom and regulation may lead to a boost in our wavering economy and (for argument’s sake) our country’s image, it’s imperative to point out why legalizing prostitution is definitely not the “solution” our country — or any country for that matter — needs.

There are a variety of reasons why people are interested in seeing a legal sex trade in the United States. More tax revenue could be pumped into our economy, and fewer STDs would be passed around because prostitutes would have to be registered and undergo periodic health checks.

While this may look good on paper, the reality is the legalization of prostitution opens the doors for sex trafficking and the exploitation of young girls and women around the world.

Case studies show that the legalization and decriminalization of prostitution is a root cause of the rapid expansion of sex trafficking in the 21st century. Let’s take a look.

A 2001 New York Times article by Suzanne Daley reported that the legalization of prostitution in the Netherlands correlated with an influx of foreigners trafficked across their borders. Legalizing prostitution in the Netherlands didn’t control it — it expanded it by 25 percent.

After Germany legalized prostitution, studies showed that nine out of 10 women found in the brothels were foreigners trafficked from eastern Europe.

The legalization of prostitution in Australia led to an increased number of eastern Asian women trafficked across its borders and sold as sex slaves in so-called “regulated brothels.”

In the U.S., Nevada is the only state that has legalized prostitution. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Nevada has the highest rate of child prostitution in the U.S. and is one of the most likely destinations for human trafficking.

Does it seem like legalizing prostitution is a solution now?

Women sold into sex trafficking, whether it occurs in countries where prostitution is legal or not, suffer from extreme abuse, malnutrition and loss of the basic human right to life. These women are forced to serve up to 40 men a day, and once they are considered ‘used up,’ they are left to die.

Many women who end up trafficked are trying to escape poverty, gender discrimination and violence in search of a better life but get sold by third-parties to traffickers, many of whom sell them as sex slaves repeatedly in countries where prostitution is legal.

In America, a cop is not going to approach someone running a hot dog stand because it is a perfectly legal activity. In places where prostitution is legal and said to be ‘severely regulated,’ cops are not going to stop and question girls standing on the corner, either.

The problem is most of these young girls and women are there completely against their will.

With an estimated 27 million people currently enslaved — 80 percent of which are women and children sold into sex slavery — now is not the time to legalize the sex industry. We must unite and work to create policies to combat sex trafficking, not support laws that would expand it. We must spread awareness of this issue and mobilize our community to fight it.

We must be the change.

Every 47 seconds in Greece (where prostitution is legal), a girl is sold within a brothel completely against her will. In the time it took you to read this article, how many women do you think were sold into sex slavery?

Do you still think legalizing prostitution would be the answer to solving this injustice?

__

Contact The Daily Reveille’s opinion staff at opinion@lsureveille.com