Sex Crimes

FBI Operation Frees Dozens of Child Prostitutes

A nationwide FBI operation has freed dozens of children from forced prostitution and has resulted in hundreds of arrests. From CNN:

Dozens of juveniles have been freed from forced prostitution by a nationwide operation that resulted in the arrests of hundreds of other people, the FBI announced Monday.

In the three-day operation, which began Thursday night, the FBI, along with local and state law enforcement agencies, took the 46 girls and one boy -- all of them U.S. citizens ages 13 to 17 -- into protective custody.

"Operation Cross Country II" involved efforts in 29 cities and resulted in the arrest of 73 pimps and 518 adult prostitutes, the FBI said.

Those arrested could face federal or state charges, depending on their alleged activities.

FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said some of the alleged sex traffickers were working in networks of six to 10 pimps.

"Sex trafficking of children remains one of our most violent and unconscionable crimes in this country," he told reporters.

Authorities said some of the alleged prostitutes were found at casinos and truck stops. Others were advertised on the Internet.

Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, likened teen prostitution to "21st century slavery" and estimated that tens of thousands of teens may be involved. He said it is "happening on Main Street U.S.A. ... These people are moving kids city to city."

Information from last summer's first "Operation Cross Country" led agents to some of the targets identified in the latest initiative, the FBI said.

When authorities received a tip about a possible juvenile prostitute, an agent would set up a sting operation to determine the person's age; anyone under age 18 was taken into custody.

In all, the initiative has freed 576 child victims from forced prostitution, the FBI said.

Federal Judge Resigns Over Allegations By Former Prostitute

U.S. District Judge Edward W. Nottingham Jr. has submitted his resignation to President Bush because of allegations that the Judge asked a prostitute to mislead investigators regarding their relationship. TalkLeft has more. From The Denver Post:

A series of sexually charged allegations over the past year, including a recent claim by a prostitute that Chief U.S. District Judge Edward W. Nottingham Jr. had asked her to mislead judicial investigators about their weekly trysts, prompted Nottingham to resign his lifetime commission Tuesday.

"He is deeply remorseful for his actions," Nottingham's lawyer wrote in a public statement that didn't specify exactly what those actions were or whether any of the publicized anonymous claims are true. "He is also embarrassed and ashamed for any loss of confidence caused by those actions and attendant publicity and sincerely apologizes to the public and the judiciary."

Nottingham submitted his resignation to President Bush and said it had become clear that leaving the bench was the only way to put the matter behind both him and the court where he had worked for almost 19 years.

The resignation came as Chief Judge Robert Henry of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was in the midst of investigating Nottingham for misconduct.

Henry, in a statement of his own, acknowledged for the first time the breadth of the investigation, which began last fall after a complaint arose from testimony in Nottingham's divorce case about how he spent thousands of dollars in one night at a Denver strip club.

Since that initial complaint, 9News has reported that Nottingham's name emerged as a client in an investigation of a Denver prostitution ring and that a prostitute had complained to the 10th Circuit that Nottingham had asked her to mislead judicial investigators about their relationship. The prostitute's identity remains secret.

"The Judicial Council, through its appointed special committees, conducted a thorough and extensive investigation, interviewed many witnesses, considered voluminous documentation and conducted two hearings," Henry wrote in a statement issued Tuesday. "At this critical time in the investigation of these multiple complaints of misconduct, Judge Nottingham has stepped down, effective immediately, as chief judge of the district of Colorado, has ceased judicial duties and has resigned his commission as a United States district judge effective Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008."

Nottingham left the bench last week, turning a drug trial over to another judge, and has not been in court this week.

Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Colorado, said he could not comment on whether a criminal investigation into Nottingham's conduct is underway.

Nottingham's resignation won't have a serious impact on criminal cases pending before the court, though it could result in some minor delays, Dorsch ner said.

A statement from the U.S. District Court for Colorado said that Judge Wiley Y. Daniel would step up to become chief judge, overseeing the operation of the courthouse and the bench.

Daniel becomes the first African-American judge to be appointed chief judge at the U.S. District Court of Colorado.

In the statement on behalf of the court, Nottingham's colleagues lauded his leadership, particularly in advancing technology and including electronic courtroom evidence presentation and case filings.

"Throughout his judicial career, Judge Nottingham worked tirelessly to ensure that his courtroom and case- management practices were premised on the law and applied fairly to all who appeared before him," the statement said.

After working as a judicial clerk, private attorney and a federal prosecutor, Nottingham was appointed to the bench Nov. 27, 1989, by President George H.W. Bush.

Colorado Senator Calls for Federal Judge's Resignation

U.S. Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) is publicly urging Chief U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham Jr. of the District of Colorado to resign over allegations that he tried to persuade a former prostitute to lie about paying her for sex to investigators. TalkLeft has a post suggesting that the Judge will in fact resign. Judge Nottingham is probably best-known for presiding over the trial of former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio. From The Denver Post:

Democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar urged Chief U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham Jr. to resign today, a day after allegations surfaced that he tried to get a former prostitute to lie to investigators about paying her for sex.

Nottingham called in sick to work this week, and his six-day criminal trial was taken over by another judge.

A source close to the judge says he is contemplating resignation, but as 5 p.m. passed on the East Coast, the clerk of the U.S. District Court had not received a notification from Nottingham or the White House of a resignation this afternoon.

If a federal judge resigns, the judge must notify the White House first. Calls to the White House inquiring about Nottingham were not returned today and Thursday.

Nottingham and his attorney did not return calls for comment today.

9News reported that a former prostitute from an escort service filed a complaint against Nottingham with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last week, saying that he asked her to lie about how they met and that he paid her for sex.

The court was already investigating Nottingham on other ethical complaints involving strippers, escorts, and an argument he had with a woman in a wheelchair over a handicapped-parking spot.

Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Colorado and Kathleen Wright, spokeswoman for the Denver FBI, both said they could not confirm or deny that a criminal investigation of the judge was underway.

Victims as Defendants

A few weeks ago, we mentioned a new bill signed into law by New York Gov. David Paterson which shields sexually exploited children from being charged with prostitution. A Stitch in Haste ties together the law with a different case we discussed the other day:

It’s a long-standing principle in the law that “predatory” crimes should not be applied to those whom the law is meant to protect. So, for example, minors usually (though not always) cannot be prosecuted for statutory rape. Due process demands (or ought demand) that someone cannot simultaneously be the perpetrator and the victim of the same crime.

[The new law] [m]akes perfect sense to me. I find it depressing (but not surprising) that the move was ever considered controversial and that it had so much trouble getting through New York’s dysfunctional state legislature.

I have three other hasty stitches:

1. Wouldn’t it be nice to see, as a stepping stone toward decriminalization, drug offenses treated the same way? Why should drug users (i.e., the victims) ever be prosecuted for buying drugs? Aren’t they “incompetent” (i.e., as addicts) much the same way that minors are deemed incompetent? Why not make the same offer: Get treatment, disclose your source, and face no criminal penalty?

2. Teens who engage in prostitution, especially those in New York City, overwhelmingly do so because they are runaways with no other means of survival. And a disproportionate fraction of those runaways are gays, either disowned by their families or fleeing hostile communities (e.g., this source claims 42% of New York’s homeless youth identify as gay or lesbian; this source says “more than 20%”). Any policy discussion regarding the plight of teen runaways should incorporate the causal impact of anti-gay bigotry on the problem. (See also my previous posts on the role of anti-gay bigotry on teen suicide and suicide-ideation rates.)

3. What does it say about contemporary criminal justice that I had to use the term “predatory” crimes in my opening sentence (i.e., as opposed to “victimless” crimes)? Should conduct that is not “predatory” ever be a crime in the first place?

New York Protects Exploited Children From Prostitution Charges

CrimProf Blog has a post discussing a New York Times article detailing a New York law which will end the practice of charging underage prostitutes.  From The New York Times:

Ending years of debate and delay, Gov. David A. Paterson on Friday signed into law a bill shielding sexually exploited girls and boys from being charged with prostitution.

The law, known as the Safe Harbor for Exploited Youth Act, will divert children under the age of 18 who have been arrested for prostitution into counseling and treatment programs, provided they agree to aid in the prosecution of their pimps.

It has been the subject of intense debate in the State Legislature and beyond, and was opposed by some law enforcement officials and by the Bloomberg administration, which argued that the bill would make it harder to crack down on prostitution.

But the bill’s backers said it was wrong to treat under-age prostitutes — many forced into the sex trade and kept there with physical threats and abuse — as criminals rather than victims.

The legislation passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly several times in recent years but died in the Republican-controlled State Senate, most recently because of disagreement over language addressing whether judges would have any discretion over diverting criminal charges.

But supporters agreed to add provisions this year that allow charges to be reinstated if the arrested child refuses counseling or declines to cooperate with court mandates, like testifying against sex traffickers. The new law will also prevent anyone who has already been through the program from avoiding prosecution for later prostitution offenses.

The Freakonomics of the Sex Industry

From the New York Times blog:

1. What was the most common lawyer fantasy/role play?

A: Lawyers have one common fantasy, according to high-end sex workers: they want their lady-friend to play the role of “opposing counsel,” by visiting them in the hotel room to strike a plea bargain. I’ll leave the rest to the imagination....

Q: What are your thoughts on legalization?

DOROTHY: I think legalization is really bad for the women because they will just get exploited. They’ll get paid a lot less and be forced to do a lot more.

I don’t condone prostitution, but I do understand survival.

Women sell their bodies for survival — I don’t care how much money they make. You don’t want to make that a permanent thing....

Q: Is there much mobility from low to high-end sex work?

DOROTHY: I’ve seen a lot of women get off the streets and make a lot more money. They end up doing a dating service, or working at a hotel bar, or maybe they go place an ad on the internet. But most of these women make about $30,000 if they get really successful. They don’t make a lot more than that because they have a lot of expenses and they usually have children, rent, and things like that. They can’t keep a full-time job doing anything else while they are selling themselves.

Once in a while you find somebody who meets a rich man — or maybe two or three rich men — and then they hit the jackpot! These men start liking them, and then they let their friends know, and on and on. That’s how you can start earning a lot in the game.

There are other odd details of the industry based upon interviews with two women.

HT: Feminist Law Professors

The Russian Sex Industry

CNN had a nice article about the horrors of the Russian sex industry. The situation in Russia isn't unlike the problems in many countries that don't attempt to regulate or control prostitution in any meaningful way. Still, some of the details are tough to read:

They say thousands of young women are made to work as sex slaves on the city's streets, unable to escape from the ruthless and violent criminal gangs who traffic them.

At this center, Christine, a 27-year-old Nigerian woman, tells how she acquired a painful 4-inch scar across her right cheek. She says she was lured to Russia from Nigeria four years ago by her uncle. He promised to give her a college education, she says.

But instead, she says, he sent her to a Moscow brothel. He told her "the kind of job I'm going to be doing is prostitution."

"I ask him, 'Why prostitution? Why not another job to pay the money?' He says I didn't speak the language. I cannot do any other job."

She added, "It made me feel very bad. I felt that I'm not going to do it over my dead body."

But when she tried to run away, her uncle cut her face, says Christine, who asked that her last name not be used.

"He made me know that if I don't cooperate with him, something bad will happen to me -- that if I made an attempt to run away, it would end in taking my life. So I was really scared about that," she said.

Around the Web

Sentencing Law and Policy points out an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution discussing the broad reach of sex offender residency restrictions.  The article tells the story of a woman who, at age 17, oral sex with a 15-year-old male classmate.  The woman is now subject to Georgia's strict residency restrictions that say an offender cannot live within 1,000 feet of places where children congregate. It's yet another case illustrating that all "sex offenders" are not equal.

A former middle school coach in California, who was convicted of sexual conduct with underage girls, is "arguing for a review of his case, saying he was not advised that he could face almost 200 years in prison before becoming eligible for a parole hearing."  The man, now 26, had sexual encounters with several teenage girls when he was 18 to 20 years old. He was sentenced to two consecutive 15-years-to-life terms and two dozen concurrent life terms.

The Washington Post has an article discussing a new bill in New York that would divert young girls arrested for prostitution to social programs rather than punishing them. While the age of consent in New York is 17, there is no minimum age for charges of prostitution. Some suggest that social services are the best way to treat these youths while others argue treatment programs should only be completed if they are part of the legal process.

Crime and Consequences reports that (according to this New York Times article), "85 Republican members of the House of Representatives have requested that the Supreme Court reconsider its decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana to ban the death penalty for child rape." The request was prompted by the revelation that the military permits the death penalty for child rape, which is contrary to the majority's statement that no federal jurisdiction permits it.

Vermont Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie recently called on state lawmakers "to convene in a special session next month to pass new laws cracking down on sex offenders, proposing a 25-year mandatory minimum prison term and other measures."  Not everyone agreed with Lt. Gov. Dubie's proposals however.   “Long mandatory sentences make us feel really good, but they really do very little to keep people safe from sex offenders,” said Karen Tronsgard-Scott, director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Gas and Sex Crimes

After the recent story where a woman was arrested for exchanging sex for gas cards, there is more proof that gas is becoming the preferred means of exchange for prostitution services. A legal brothel in Nevada is giving away gas vouchers with the purchase of other sexual services:

A Nevada brothel is trying to stimulate business by offering free gasoline.

Clients of the Shady Lady Ranch will get a $50 gas voucher if they fork out $300 -- worth about one hour's worth of services -- at the brothel in Beatty, Nevada, 130 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Owner James Davis said he already has had to order another $1,000 set of gas vouchers because the first $1,000 were spent in one week.

"It's rocking along. We're doing quite well. June and July historically are not big months," said Davis, who is co-owner of the brothel along with his wife Bobbi, in a telephone interview.

The $50 rebate would roughly cover the cost of a round trip drive from Las Vegas to the ranch.

News of the Weird

A clear sign that gas prices are way too high (HT: Above the Law):

Kentucky woman is facing prostitution charges for allegedly trading sex for gasoline. Angela Eversole, 34, was nabbed last weekend during a police stakeout at a Days Inn, where she allegedly trysted with customer Kenneth Nowak. According to court records, Nowak admitted paying for Eversole's services, in part, with a $100 Speedway gas card. Eversole was hit with a prostitution rap and also charged with doing business without an occupational license. Nowak was charged with promoting prostitution.... A local prosecutor noted that it was sad to see someone selling their body for gas, in this case about 25 gallons worth.

And thanks to a helpful reader, you can find America's Top 10 sex laws:

1. Oral sex is illegal in 18 states, including Arizona.

2. In Virginia, it is illegal to have sex with the lights on.

3. It is illegal for husbands in Willowdale, Oregon, to talk dirty during intercourse.

4. Sexual intercourse between unmarried couples is illegal in Georgia.

5. Engaging in any sexual position other than missionary is illegal in Washington, DC.

6. In Connorsville, Wisconsin, it is illegal for a man to shoot off a gun when his female partner is having an orgasm.

7. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, it is illegal to have sex with a truck driver inside a toll booth.

8. Having sexual relations with a porcupine is illegal in Florida.

9. It is illegal in Utah to marry your first cousin before the age of 65.

10. Sex with animals is perfectly legal for men in Washington state, as long as the animal weighs less than 40 pounds.

I can't verify that the list doesn't have any urban legends (or any true listings at all). I wonder when the last date of enforcement was for any of those statutes (assuming they are real). And to add to the list, porcupine lovers in Florida should beware.