NEXT WEEK, APRIL 2 - 6, IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS WEEK - START INCREASING YOUR AWARENESS WITH LEARNING WHAT COULD BE HAPPENING IN THE HOTELS YOU’LL BE VISITING FOR CONFERENCES THIS SPRING, OR VACATIONS THIS SUMMER!

CNN’s Freedom Project highlights the horrors of modern-day slavery, amplifying the voices of the victims, highlighting success stories and helping expose the web of criminal enterprises trading in human life.

Learn the signs of trafficking victims
Red flags to watch for: Someone besides the guest rents a room, checks in without luggage and leaves the hotel. The child left in the room may seem confused about his or her own name; may appear helpless, ashamed, nervous or disoriented; may show signs of abuse such as bruising in various stages of healing; or may have tattoos that reflect money or ownership.

The child usually doesn’t have any spending money or identification; cannot make eye contact; and wears clothes printed with slogans such as “Daddy’s Girl” or inappropriate clothes for the weather. Sometimes, the child will come on to various men during the check-in process.”

*This article can be accessed if you copy and paste the entire address below into your web browser.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/29/travel/hotel-sex-trafficking/index.html?iref=obinsite

Thanks to Val Stevenson, Human Justice Mission, First United Methodist Church

June 18-22, 2012
Colorado Springs, CO

COVA’s 13th Annual Colorado Victim Assistance Academy (CVAA) is designed to present victim advocates and victim service providers with essential victim advocacy training. This includes presentations on Domestic Violence, the Colorado Victim’s Rights Act, Sexual Assault, Child Abuse, Vicarious Trauma, Boundaries and Ethics for Advocates, and Legal Privilege.

Each participant will receive over 40 hours of training. The training is provided by COVA trainers, as well as experienced practitioners currently working in the victim advocacy and law enforcement fields. Additionally, advocates will make connections with other advocates from all over the State of Colorado, enhancing their professional networking opportunities.

If you have questions or need further information, you may contact Training Coordinator, Dan Griffin, by calling 303-996-8082 or emailing him at dan@coloradocrimevictims.org.

Employees of a “massage clinic” were arrested for prostitution in Wheat Ridge. The news story reported that due to a local ordinance, the police do not have the authority to shut down the clinics as nuisances until a certain number of arrests have been made.

The use of the term “massage clinic” raises concern within the massage therapy community.

Both Jean and Strider reported this incident to DORA, along with the information that the women arrested for prostitution were not registered as massage therapists while purporting to be offering massage therapy services. Jean will follow-up with Deann to see what was done with this information.

Deann appreciates the information on human trafficking shared by Strider, which Roger provided to the group via email.

I did follow up with DORA regarding the Wheat Ridge arrests. They issued Cease and Desist Orders telling both prostitutes to stop acting like they are registered MTs when they are not. DORA reported that anytime they hear about unlicensed MTs through the media, their practice is to issue Cease and Desist Orders. If they continue to identify as RMT’s (or MT’s), the Attorney General goes to court on DORA’s behalf and has a judge enforce the order. If the unregistered “MTs” STILL do not stop, they are in contempt of court and can be thrown in jail. Wheat Ridge was also notified that these were unregistered individuals.

This doesn’t change the Wheat Ridge ordinance which requires 5 complaints to shut down a business. That is a local problem.

Jean Robinson
Government Relations Director
Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals

Here is an article about yesterday’s Trafficking in Children case in Colorado, sent to us by Anne Darr, FBI Victim Specialist! Note that Holiday Survivor Bags were used for all the rescued girls - thanks to Restore Innocence!

http://www.9news.com/news/article/245934/339/14-accused-of-trafficking-children-for-sex-across-CO

DENVER - The Colorado Attorney General’s office says 14 people were indicted on Monday, accused of running a human trafficking ring that trafficked children for sex across the state.

According to Attorney General John Suthers’ office, 22-year-old Patrick Lloyd McGowan, 20-year-old Chad Armand Gow, 20-year-old Roy Manuel Ibarra-Gonzales and 20-year-old Bryan Steven Burns oversaw the ring that involved not only the prostitution of children, but also sold methamphetamine and cocaine.

The 70-count indictment says McGowan, Gow, Ibarra-Gonzalez and Burns arranged “out calls” for their child victims through the Internet, and coerced the children by giving them drugs and threatening them.

Investigators say the four men sent children to Denver, Boulder, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and Lakewood for sex.

If convicted of trafficking children, which is the lead count in the indictment, the four could each face up to 24 years in prison and up to $1 million fines.

“Human trafficking and child prostitution are tragic crimes, from the devastating effects they have on their victims to the mere fact that the use and sale of persons persists in our world today,” Suthers said in a news release. “This indictment underlines law enforcement’s commitment to vigorously investigate and prosecute any and all cases of human trafficking we encounter.”

The Attorney General says the suspects arranged out-calls for the victims through Internet site backpage.com. Suthers says the four ringleaders set up dates for the victims and johns through the site.

At least five teenage women under the age of 18 were victims in the case, according to Suthers.

“We feel good about the indictment but we’re also very disturbed by it. These are people that are very brazen. This is easy money for them,” Suthers said.

This is the second case the Colorado Human Trafficking Task Force has prosecuted.

(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

President Obama has declared January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. January 11 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and COVA invites you to honor all the people who fall victim to human trafficking in our Colorado communities, the United States and around the world by taking action to learn more about the issue and help raise awareness to end this violation of fundamental human rights. Anytime between now and February 1, which is National Freedom Day, please take time to read about human trafficking, engage in conversation with friends about this issue, and learn how your lifestyle might unintentionally contribute to the exploitation of vulnerable people without you even knowing it! Together, we can do something to end this crime, both in our communities and in the world.

On January 17, the state legislature in New Jersey passed a crucial piece of legislation that will aid victims of human trafficking in New Jersey. This bill—called a “safe harbor” law—is an important step forward in the fight against slavery right here in our own country.

Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) recognizes the reality that sex trafficking occurs at truck stops throughout the U.S., and strives to educate, equip, empower and mobilize members of the trucking and travel plaza industry to combat domestic sex trafficking.

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center frequently receives reports about potential human trafficking originating from TAT members. These reports provide invaluable information used to safeguard victims of sex trafficking and prosecute traffickers.

You can contact TAT at tat.truckers@gmail.com.

FROM ONE OF OUR SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE TEAMS ABROAD:

Recently our team funded by an SCTNow grant was monitoring three suspected child-sex tourists who were trying to blend in at an amusement park. While they may have assumed their bizarre interest in kids was normal and misunderstood, they were also aware that they didn’t quite fit in as three men without their families at a children’s event. They must have sensed something and tried to leave quickly, but one was detained by authorities and questioned.

Fortunately, the kids at the park remained safe and the person in question was turned over to their home country on suspicion of being a predator. However, in a feigned attempt to make himself look good he told us about a girl he had seen at a train station, and this information led to our team saving a 13 year old girl who had been trafficked in from another country and had somehow escaped her captors. Our team is now caring for this girl while investigators are on to her traffickers.

Within days our team rescued another girl at the train station, 14 years old, who had run away from home because her stepfather was renting her out, and we have now found safe housing for her.

These two stories are mild compared to others which represent 9 saves in October and November. We are very grateful to our friends in SCTNow and their faithful partners for their recent $7500 grant which has enabled us to continue our work, and we look forward to laboring together both in North America and abroad to not only save vulnerable children but to bring about an end to the ease with which predators and traffickers rob our next generation of their precious childhoods.

SCTNow is committed to funding teams in the US and abroad fighting child sex trafficking.   The two children rescued are two of millions of children around the world victimized through the crime of child sex trafficking. Every child freed, and every predator off the street is one step closer to ending this global atrocity.

Meetings 2nd Tuesday of each month
First United Methodist Church
410 N. Nevada, Room #234, South Entrance
5:30pm - 7:30pm

• March 14^th – Matthew Ayers “Dream Center”

• April 10^th - Amanda Reynolds “Let them have faces”

• May 8^th – “Not FOR SALE” - Denver Organization

• June 12^th – Pam Harvey “Transitions Global”

2^nd Annual Benefit Dinner

May 4^th, 2012

Cielo at Castle Pines

6pm

Register: www.restoreinnocence.org

Invitation: Benefit Dinner Invitation