THE FOURTH

OF SEVEN
PARTS
The Forum
LATE EDITION
O F FA R GO - M O O R H E A D
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 INFORUM.COM
A FORUM
NEWS SERVICE
INVESTIGATIVE
SERIES

PROSECUTING
BUYERS, SELLERS
Some shift focus to men, seek help for women

ILLUSTRATION BY TROY BECKER / FORUM NEWS SERVICE

Thanks.eps

The men pictured above have been convicted in state or federal courts of offenses related to human trafficking. Some are convicted of
trafficking offenses and others are convicted of attempting to pay for sex with minors. All are either North Dakota cases or involved a victim
who was trafficked in North Dakota.

STORY BY AMY DALRYMPLE AND KATHERINE LYMN FORUM NEWS SERVICE INSIDE
JENNY’S

‘A
my” walks into the hotel lobby, thinking she is under – is 19, though her ad says 21. She tells the agent she has JOURNEY
meeting a man who had arranged to pay $300 for sex been in the life since she was 13. The changing market
on an out-call basis. Her mother worked as a prostitute. in North Dakota,
Before she can get to the room, the supposed “john” “I just grew up with it,” she says with a shrug. PAGE A5
– Rob Fontenot, an undercover agent with the North Dakota Amy, with her Michael Kors bag and Rock Revival jeans, boasts
Bureau of Criminal Investigation – shows her his badge and about the money she makes and her addiction to designer labels. SAFE HARBOR
takes her outside to his unmarked SUV. He is there just to talk, How much money are we talking about? the agent asks.
he reassures her, not to make an arrest. Amy thinks for a moment.
LAW IN ND
In the front seat, Fontenot shows Amy the Backpage ad that $95,000, she says. Between January and April. State seeks to
decriminalize
brought them together this October afternoon in Williston. Some of the oil guys are dirty and gross, she says, but there’s
prostitution for
“Give me a call now … don’t miss the opportunity to an upside.
minors, PAGE A6
experience true bliss,” reads the ad posted at 2:10 a.m. that day. “I get more money when they stink,” she says.
She doesn’t recognize the ad as hers until Fontenot points out
the phone number. PROSECUTION: Page A4
“Oh, then yeah, it was mine,” she says.
She posts a lot of ads, she tells Fontenot,
and uses fake photos.
Amy – the name she advertised

ADDITIONAL CONTENT AT TRAFFICKEDREPORT.COM

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A4 Wednesday, January 7, 2015
ABOUT
THE SERIES
Forum News Service
takes on the issue of
human trafficking and
female exploitation
in this seven-part
in-depth reporting series.
We explore the emerging
crisis as it unfolds in the
Oil Patch of western
North Dakota, as well as
in Minnesota and South
Dakota.
SUNDAY
A Booming Crisis
Understanding the
global human trafficking
crisis and its connection
to the Oil Patch of
western North Dakota,
where an influx of men
and money in recent
years has brought an
increased demand for
commercial sex.
MONDAY
The Game
We take a deeper
psychological look at
pimp control, which is
the manipulation of
often already vulnerable
women. Pimps are
masters at making
unwanted, perhaps
discarded women feel
wanted.
TUESDAY
Difficulty
in Detection
How is human
trafficking detected?
Hospitals, hotels and
other groups are taking
various steps to detect
and report possible
human trafficking.
TODAY
Prosecuting
Prostitution
Conversation, rather
than arrest and
interrogation, is one of
the tactics officers are
using today to gain
information about
traffickers and put them
behind bars. It’s no easy
task. While going after
traffickers is a priority,
those cases are difficult
to prove.
THURSDAY
Making the
Connection
The Internet has
become the new
battleground for sex
trafficking. It’s where
women and traffickers
go to promote sex for
sale, but it’s also a
powerful tool for law
enforcement in arresting
them.
FRIDAY
Squaring Up
Law enforcement and
victim service providers
in North Dakota are
identifying more victims
of sex trafficking, but the
closest dedicated
shelter for trafficking
victims is more than 500
miles away.
SATURDAY
What’s Next?
Human trafficking will be
a major topic of
discussion in the next
legislative session,
including a proposal to
adopt a new uniform law
on human trafficking.
JAN. 11
The Documentary
WDAY’s Kevin
Wallevand digs deeper
into sex trafficking in
North Dakota in a
30-minute
documentary-style
news program, airing at
10:35 p.m. Sunday.
ONLINE
Many additional stories,
photos, videos and
more can be found at
traffickedreport.com
THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE BAKKEN AND BEYOND
PROSECUTION FROM A1
Her brother, a truck driver, told her about the oil boom in
North Dakota. There’s money to be made up there, he said. So
she packed her designer clothes and made the move.
Her brother thinks she works at Wal-Mart.
“I like my job,” Amy says, a little defensively, a little
defiantly. “I have fun doing it. I get to party all the time.”
Fontenot, the BCI’s point person for human trafficking, is
skeptical. He sees that her sparkly pink fingernails are
broken. She has a cut on her arm, bruises on her leg.
She tells him that two days earlier, she fled topless from a
Williston house after a “trick” attacked her. They had
undressed, she says, and he asked for his money back.
No refunds, she insisted.
Then he pounced on her, she tells Fontenot, and injured her
shoulder, took her sweatshirt, broke her pepper spray and
stopped her from dialing 911.
“He just went crazy on me,” she said, adding that she thinks
he may have been on meth. “I could not get out of the house.”
She rattles off the address to Fontenot, but she said she did
not report it to local police. The home is owned by an oilfield
services company, according to county records.
Amy said she freaked out and cried after escaping to her car.
The incident triggered her post-traumatic stress disorder, a
result of being kidnapped and held hostage, she tells
Fontenot. She said she’s also had a .22-caliber gun shoved
inside of her, leaving her unable to have children.
The last time Amy was with law enforcement was during an
investigation of a man who had been her trafficker. He
pleaded guilty this fall in federal court in another state to
forcing women to travel to several states, place ads online and
engage in prostitution.
“He was a
(expletive)
monster,” she said.
“He never hit me
because I know
my place and I
play my role very
well.”
Amy insists she
doesn’t have a
boyfriend or pimp
now.
“Every single
girl you see on
Backpage besides
me probably has a
pimp.”
Not Amy, she
says. “Because I’m
smart.”
A NEW
APPROACH
While four years
ago the bureau
was involved in a
sting targeting
and arresting
women working in
prostitution in
Williston, the
focus today is on
investigating the
traffickers.
Fontenot
responds to
Backpage ads in
the guise of being
a “date,” and uses
his time with the
women to see if
they are being
trafficked, or
know someone
who is. He works
on building
relationships with
women to get
information on
traffickers while
trying to identify underage victims.
The BCI allowed Forum News Service reporters to sit in the
backseat during some of the interviews.
“A lot of times they won’t tell you about their boyfriend or
their pimp, but they’ll tell you about one they used to have or
their friend’s pimp,” Fontenot told other law enforcement
officers at a training session this fall.
Conversation rather than arrest and interrogation is one of
the tactics law enforcement officers are using today to try to
identify traffickers and put them behind bars.
It’s no easy task.
If prosecutors could show in court some of the ways people
compel women into prostitution, literally showing the terror
and violence they employ, putting the pimps and traffickers
away likely would be much easier.
But they can be subtle, those who manipulate women and
girls into a life of forced sex for money. They say they will
harm a girl’s parents or siblings, a woman’s child. They have
embarrassing photos and will see that they are published.
They say they will tip authorities to a woman’s shaky
immigration status, threatening deportation.
“At the end of the day, these are very difficult cases to
prove,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl said at a recent
human trafficking summit in Bismarck. “It doesn’t take a lot
of skill or talent to find weaknesses in a human trafficking
case.”
To convict someone of human trafficking at the federal
level, prosecutors need to prove that the defendant compelled
someone to engage in commercial sex acts through the use of
force, fraud or coercion. (Those elements are not required if
the victim is under 18, just as “consent” is no defense in a
case of statutory rape.) State statutes have similar
requirements for prosecution of adults.
Most often, the human trafficking cases involve subtle
forms of coercion, not physical restraints or chains.
“Admittedly, these are the most difficult forms of coercion
to prove. You can’t take a picture of it. You need the victim’s
cooperation. You need the victim’s testimony,” Puhl said.
“Only the victim can explain the climate of fear. Only the
victim can describe why she did it.”
But first, authorities need to identify victims, who often
don’t consider themselves victims or are too fearful to speak
up about their trafficker.
“Without a ‘bad guy,’ it’s hard for us to make a case,”
Fontenot said.
If officers encounter a woman engaged in prostitution, it
may take six or seven positive interactions before the woman
A FORUM NEWS SERVICE
INVESTIGATIVE SERIES
tells officers about her trafficker, Fontenot said. In such
cases, “much more of a rapport-building has to take place.”
If the woman talks to law enforcement several times, she
often will give inconsistent statements, giving a defense
attorney an opportunity to point out holes in the case, said
Christina Sambor, an attorney and project coordinator for
FUSE, North Dakota’s anti-trafficking coalition.
“That gives somebody on the other side of a case a lot to
work with,” Sambor said.
TRAUMA IN TESTIMONY
Marlyce Wilder, state’s attorney for Williams County, which
charged its first human trafficking case last year, said she
anticipates the challenges to prosecuting these cases will be
similar to challenges in domestic violence.
“Many believe they are in love with the abuser, that the
abuser loves them, and perhaps they may even have children
in common with him,” Wilder said. “During the grooming
process, the abuser has likely convinced the victims that no
one else cares about them – at least not the way that he does.”
Heidi Carlson, a former victim of sex trafficking, was
married to her trafficker and has children with him.
“He was a brutal, brutal, brutal man,” said Carlson, who
was trafficked for 10 years, including in the Dakotas. “He
tried to kill me several times, and I actually should be dead.”
The man was never prosecuted.
“I would never testify against him. I was too scared,” said
Carlson, who lives in the Twin Cities.
Years later, some encouraged Carlson to take civil action
against the man. But she did not want intimate details of her
life to be analyzed in a court proceeding.
“To put my life out there would not have been healing for
me,” Carlson said.
The serious trauma that victims experience makes it
difficult for
them to testify.
Before Levell
Lee Durr
pleaded guilty in
his federal
trafficking case,
one victim’s
psychologist
wrote to the
court urging
that the trial be
delayed because
testifying would
be extremely
traumatic. The
woman is
“severely
psychologically
fragile,” the
psychologist
wrote, and is
dealing with
trauma
flashbacks,
anxiety and
trouble sleeping.
Tim Purdon,
U.S. attorney for
North Dakota,
emphasizes the
importance of
victim services.
That was key in
convicting Durr.
“If we’re going
to hold the bad
guys, the
traffickers, the
people who trade
in flesh
responsible,
we’re going to
need these folks
as witnesses,”
Purdon said.
Societal issues
or
misconceptions held by juries and judges may also factor into
getting a conviction for human trafficking.
“I think jurors have stereotypical views of very many types
of cases, and this is just one of them,” said Kelly Dillon,
deputy Ward County state’s attorney. “When most people
hear human trafficking, they think of the 12-year-old locked
in the basement. And that’s just not what we’re seeing out
here.”
In an upcoming trial in Moorhead, prosecutors plan to call
two expert witnesses on sex trafficking to educate jurors
about why victims are often reluctant to seek help and
reasons why victims may continue to be loyal to their
traffickers.
“Jurors without any knowledge of sex trafficking are likely
to misunderstand or be confused by this and other behavior,”
writes Pamela Harris, chief assistant Clay County attorney,
in court records.
PROSTITUTES AS VICTIMS
While some say attitudes are changing about prosecuting
women for prostitution, North Dakota agencies arrested
more women for prostitution last year than in 2013.
Of the 55 misdemeanor prostitution arrests through the
end of November last year, 20 were women and 35 were men,
according to a Forum News Service analysis of cases filed in
state and municipal courts.
In addition, at least five men were charged in 2014 with
felony human trafficking or promoting prostitution offenses
in North Dakota district courts. In North Dakota federal
court, four were charged with sex trafficking-related offenses
in 2014, in addition to more than a dozen cases that worked
through federal courts related to men attempting to pay for
sex with minors.
In Grand Forks, police are reluctant to arrest a woman for
prostitution, said Lt. Jim Remer. Instead, detectives there
have been doing “knock and talks” for the past 1½ years,
similar to what the state BCI’s Fontenot does now.
Police do not arrest the women during these conversations
unless they have outstanding warrants or other
circumstances that would warrant an arrest, Remer said.
“In the old days they were called the prostitutes,” Remer
said. “I think you need to look at them and view them as
possibly victims of trafficking.”
Puhl encourages agencies to make that police policy.
STORY CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
A FORUM NEWS SERVICE
INVESTIGATIVE SERIES
Women engaged in prostitution seem to target Williston’s Vegas Motel, likely because they can solicit customers from the motel lounge, says
general manager Jeff Smith. But prostitution is “rampant” in Williston and an issue all hotels are dealing with, says Smith, president of the local hotel
association. “It’s everywhere. You can’t just point the finger at us.”
ND MEN CHANGE WITH THE OIL BOOM
By Katherine Lymn
Forum News Service
B
efore she ever visited North Dakota during the oil
boom, Jenny Gaines posted an ad on Backpage
“just to see” if men would call her phone.
The rumors were true.
“It just rang off the hook,” she said.
The numbers of men away from their families, a general
lack of female companionship and large paychecks added
up to big potential.
When Jenny visited the Bakken between 2009 and 2011, This is the life of Jenny
she would spend a week in Williston or Minot and earn Gaines. Lured into sex
$15,000. The going rate for sex at that time was $300, which trafficking at age 14, she
means she was having sex with about 50 men a week. spent 28 years in a life of
“I was pretty good at getting them in and out of there in prostitution. Throughout the
10 minutes. I made a lot of money,” she said. past six months, Forum News
At first, she would stay at Williston’s Vegas Motel. But it Service has spent time
soon was “too hot” there and she worried about getting getting to know Jenny. This is
arrested. her story.
Jenny would book her hotel room online, pay with a
credit card and only stay one night before moving to a new
hotel. She’d bring luggage and a laptop to look like she was traveling on
business. And she’d wear glasses and dress more conservatively than
other women in prostitution.
“I worked real hard to not look like I was doing that,” she said.
Jenny was familiar with North Dakota long before the Bakken boom.
In the 1990s, she worked the dancing circuit, performing in strip clubs
across North Dakota. Her trafficker would send drugs with her to sell to
other dancers and the locals.
“I made money two ways when I was out there,” she recalled.
STORY CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
“It’s not the right thing to do to charge a victim of prostitution just because
we can,” Puhl said, adding that it works against police efforts to cut into the
sex trade.
“Who’s going to cooperate with law enforcement? Is it going to be the law
enforcement officer who’s arrested that prostitute every time he’s encountered
her and thrown her in jail?” Puhl asked. “No, she’s going to trust that
individual who has picked her up six, seven times and each time he has given
her his card and said, ‘Call me, I’m here for you, I care about you and I’m ready
to work with you when you’re ready to leave this lifestyle.’ ”
STINGS TARGET WOMEN, TOO
About a third of the women arrested for prostitution in North Dakota last
year were caught up in undercover sting operations, an examination of records
shows.
In Minot, where police do the most enforcement of prostitution, accounting
for about half of the state’s prostitution arrests in 2013 and 2014, stings have
targeted women placing ads as well as the men buying sex.
“We have to go about it that way,” said Dillon, the deputy state’s attorney,
adding that the stings were in response to complaints about prostitution from
the public. “If we’re looking at ultimately getting the pimps, I think we have to
go about it that way.”
In other cases in Minot and elsewhere, women were arrested after police
received reports from hotels or encountered the activity while on patrol.
In a Williston case, a woman convicted of prostitution spoke Mandarin
Chinese, but her Backpage.com ad was in English. That, along with suspicions
about an older man who posted the woman’s bond, later led city prosecutor
Taylor Olson to call the FBI and report that the woman likely was not acting
alone. The woman was deported before authorities could investigate further,
Olson said. The suspected john, who jumped out a hotel window when police
arrived, was not charged.
In Divide County, the far northwest corner of the state, deputies found a man
and woman engaged in sex for pay in a pickup while another man observed
from a different vehicle, holding onto $1,500. Deputies cited all three.
An examination of court records also showed
that two women convicted of prostitution in
municipal court in 2014 were considered
victims in other courtrooms.
In one case, 67-year-old Marvin Rex Lord was
convicted in Burleigh County District Court of
facilitating prostitution by arranging to meet
men in a Bismarck hotel lobby and directing
them to a room he had rented with his wife. A
hotel manager witnessed the activity and
called police.
To county prosecutors, the woman, a
42-year-old Asian woman who did not speak
English, was a victim, said Pamela Nesvig,
assistant Burleigh County state’s attorney. But
in Bismarck Municipal Court, the same
woman was considered a criminal, charged
THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE BAKKEN AND BEYOND
Wednesday, January 7, 2015 A5
PHOTO BY ERIC HYLDEN; ILLUSTRATION BY TROY BECKER / FORUM NEWS SERVICE
Jenny had a “sugar daddy” in Dickinson in the 1990s
who would come see her at the Minot strip club.
“He’d always come to (now-closed) Stockmen’s and he’d
round up some girls to take out to Dickinson on the
weekend,” Jenny said. “It would be after the bars close.”
The clients then were primarily local men.
“Everything out there is like all these farmers, and the
wives don’t know,” she said. “Farmers … and dirty old
men, just dirty old men.”
During her more recent trips to North Dakota, many
customers were kids who had money and didn’t know
what else to do with it.
“ ‘You only want $300? Here, how about $500?’ ” she
recalled one saying.
But many were rowdy and carried guns.
“It got kind of scary in the end. Some of them, if they
wanted their money back, they’d get violent,” Jenny said.
“Half of them were always drunk or high, and I don’t know
how they did it, but they had to be at work the next morning.”
The rough days in the Oil Patch were some of Jenny’s
last in the life of prostitution. She didn’t have a trafficker for her last trips
West, but felt somewhat trapped when she needed money, not ever having
had another job and often facing stigma when she reached out for help.
She turned her last trick in Williston around Christmas 2011.
“Since that oil boom happened … It used to be nice farmers, maybe a
couple weirdos or goofies, but they were nice. These oil people are idiots
and obnoxious and ignorant. Really have a sense of male entitlement. And
I never felt more like a commodity than I did this last trip or two in North
Dakota. I just said I’m never coming back.”
with Class B misdemeanor prostitution. She pleaded guilty to the charge and
was given credit for the 14 days she served in jail.
Lord pleaded guilty to the Class C felony and was given credit for the 50 days
he served in jail with the remainder of a three-year sentence suspended.
In another case, Minot police arrested a woman for prostitution twice in
August, once during a sting and once after a hotel reported suspicious activity.
Minot police had encountered the same woman in June while assisting with a
human trafficking investigation. She is identified as a victim in a federal court
case involving Durr, a Milwaukee man who pleaded guilty to recruiting two
women to work as prostitutes in North Dakota.
When police questioned the woman in June, she gave them a false name and
ID and later said her pimp forced her to assume a false identity, court records
say. She did not cooperate with the human trafficking investigation.
“She did say, though, that law enforcement doesn’t understand, that it is
similar to brainwashing, that she’s so frightened that she can’t explain her
circumstances,” FBI Special Agent Bruce Bennett testified during a hearing in
U.S. District Court.
Durr was in jail when the August prostitution arrests occurred.
The police officer who arrested the woman for prostitution the second time
said that when he questioned her, she said she was working alone. In that
incident, she also was arrested for possessing drug paraphernalia. That charge
is still pending, along with a charge for bail jumping.
Windie Lazenko, a victim advocate who offered assistance to the woman, said
she should have been offered services rather than convicted of prostitution.
“The fact that Durr wasn’t controlling her at that time might have been a
reason. But we know they don’t just stop. Just because their pimp is locked up
doesn’t mean they stop,” Lazenko said.
ADDRESSING THE DEMAND
The number of men prosecuted in North Dakota for purchasing sex has
increased each of the past several years.
In Minot, a sting in September resulted in the arrest of 10 men for
misdemeanor prostitution over the course of 8½ hours. Capt. Dan Strandberg
said police hope such stings will deter demand for prostitution.
“It’s market-driven, it’s supply and demand, and if there is not a demand,
then hopefully there won’t be a supply,” Strandberg said.
Most men convicted of misdemeanor
prostitution in North Dakota plead guilty to
the charge and receive a fine or suspended jail
sentence.
In cases where the men responded to ads for
sex with minors, they face more serious
charges of human trafficking at either the
state or federal level.
Officials often prefer to take the cases federal
because the penalties are more severe. In
North Dakota, recent federal sentences
resulting from stings led to prison sentences of
one to five years, plus at least five years of
supervised release and requirements to
register as a sex offender.
Rylee Nelson contributed to this report.

A6 Wednesday, January 7, 2015
ND SEEKS TO DECRIMINALIZE
PROSTITUTION FOR MINORS
By Amy Dalrymple
Forum News Service
J
uveniles who engage in commercial sex in
North Dakota would be considered victims
and not face punishment under a new bill
drafted for introduction at the 2015 state
Legislature.
Under that same bill, adults convicted of sex
trafficking would face increased penalties.
If approved, North Dakota would join a growing
number of states with “Safe Harbor” laws
decriminalizing prostitution for minors.
FUSE, North Dakota’s anti-sex trafficking
coalition, will focus this legislative session on
educating people about what the law means, said
Christina Sambor, project coordinator for the
coalition.
Legislators and others should understand that
the proposal is not a broad legalization of
prostitution, Sambor said, but aims to help
authorities and advocates rescue children who
have been lured or coerced into prostitution while
increasing pressure on adults who exploit them.
In other situations, such as statutory rape, the
law already puts the responsibility for sexual
relations between adults and minors on the adult,
she said.
Prostitution is illegal in 49 states. In Nevada, the
commercial sex trade is legal as regulated by the
state government.
Legalization of prostitution, as a way to control
how and where it is practiced, has long been
debated. There has been vigorous international
debate over the so-called Swedish Model, which
makes it a crime in that country to purchase sex
but not to sell it. In New Zealand, both the
purchase and the sale of sex are decriminalized.
The proposed change to North Dakota law, which
will be introduced by the state Uniform Law
Commission, is more comprehensive than the
state’s current statutes against human trafficking,
said South Central Judicial District Judge Gail
Hagerty, a member of the commission.
“It’s a complete package in that it provides
criminal penalties, it provides an opportunity for
civil lawsuits to recover damages and it provides a
component for prevention of human trafficking,”
Hagerty said.
The proposal is modeled after the act adopted by
the national Uniform Law Commission. A goal of
adopting the uniform act is so trafficking laws are
similar from state to state.
“This is an interstate operation,” said Rep. Larry
Klemin, R-Bismarck, a uniform law commissioner.
“The more that we can have the laws consistent
from one jurisdiction to another, the better it is to
coordinate all of the activities involved.”
Immunity for minors – often referred to as Safe
Harbor – is just one aspect of the proposed law. It
includes immunity for prostitution offenses as
well as forgery, theft or insufficient fund or credit
offenses if those crimes were committed as a
result of being a human trafficking victim.
“I think you don’t want to get in a situation
where a young person has that kind of record or is
carrying around some kind of stigma,” Hagerty
said. “It’s going to prevent them from achieving
things in life.”
Aaron Birst, executive director for the North
Dakota State’s Attorneys Association, said
prosecutors support the uniform law but may
propose some technical amendments during the
legislative session.
“Overall, the concept when you talk to
prosecutors statewide, they would agree that
human trafficking and the sex industry is at a
level that we’ve never seen before, and that clearly
needs some legislative action,” Birst said.
Human trafficking is to be a major topic at the
association’s annual meeting later this month.
North Dakota state’s attorneys are using the
state’s existing human trafficking statute to
prosecute cases now, Birst said.
Most prosecutors would look at minors involved
in commercial sex as someone who needs services,
not prosecution, even without a Safe Harbor law,
he said.
“In reality, we probably wouldn’t be prosecuting
those juveniles anyway,” Birst said.
With a Safe Harbor law, the juveniles would not
go through the juvenile court system, but would
instead be provided with services, Sambor said.
The question for North Dakota to figure out,
however, is how to handle minors identified as sex
trafficking victims outside the juvenile justice
system.
“Are our existing services ready to take that on?”
Sambor said.
As the proposal is currently written, North
Dakota’s new law on human trafficking does not
include any funding to serve victims. A separate
proposal being discussed would allocate $500,000 to
a pilot program for victim services, and the
SD LEADS NATION WITH MOST LIFE TERMS FOR TRAFFICKING
By Katherine Lymn
and Amy Dalrymple
Forum News Service
S
ince 2009, prosecutions through the office of
Brendan Johnson, U.S. attorney for South
Dakota, have put three traffickers in prison
for life – the most of any federal district.
Johnson said the business and population
growth in the Bakken oilfields doesn’t appear to
have had much direct effect on trafficking in
South Dakota, where the problem exists but has
been more home grown. But prosecutors have
heard several victims from South Dakota say they
were brought to North Dakota.
Johnson’s office has seen several dozens of
THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE BAKKEN AND BEYOND
A FORUM NEWS SERVICE
INVESTIGATIVE SERIES
CARRIE SNYDER / FORUM NEWS SERVICE
Minneapolis police Sgt. Grant Snyder specializes in sex trafficking cases and has led training
sessions for North Dakota law enforcement.
governor’s budget does include funding for a prostitution courts similar to drug courts with
victim advocate within the Bureau of Criminal specialized judges who work with prosecutors and
Investigation. defendants to figure out what services are best,
In Minnesota, where a Safe Harbor law took Vanderhoof said.
effect in August, about $5 million in state funding In Minnesota, some law enforcement agencies
has been dedicated to housing for trafficking refer women to programs such as Breaking Free in
victims and other services in the past two years. St. Paul rather than arrest them for prostitution.
Erin Ceynar, corporate and major gifts officer “I would hope that city prosecutors and police
for the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, said would understand by now that if you’re 19 years of
funding to support Safe Harbor is critical. Ceynar, age and you’re engaged in being prostituted – that
a native of Williston, N.D., who is paying close they would recognize that for the vast majority of
attention to the human trafficking issue in her these women, they’re not really choosing to do
home state, said if North Dakota approves a Safe this,” Choi said.
Harbor law this session, the big question will be Grant Snyder, a sergeant with the Minneapolis
where minor victims of sex trafficking go for safe, Police Department who has trained law
secure housing and trauma services. enforcement in North Dakota, said while some
“North Dakota needs lots of money for victim want to consider every instance of prostitution as
services. There really isn’t infrastructure for this.human trafficking, that isn’t the case.
It needs to be built,” Ceynar said. “Not every crime of prostitution is human
trafficking. It’s not,” Snyder said.
EDUCATION STILL NEEDED But Snyder, who has interviewed more than
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne 1,000 women and girls involved in prostitution,
Stenehjem said he plans to support the proposed said it’s more effective for law enforcement to
uniform law. In addition to immunity for minors, connect them with services than to make an
it allows adults charged with prostitution to assert arrest. However, that’s challenging in a state like
an “affirmative defense” that they were victims of North Dakota that doesn’t have enough services to
trafficking. meet the need.
“My view is if you’re a victim of human Nationally, women continue to be arrested for
trafficking, you’re not prostitution rather
a criminal and you than being treated as
“
should not be charged trafficking victims,
as such,” Stenehjem Vanderhoof said.
said.
“We still continue to
The proposed law see more women being
also would allow
human trafficking My view is if you’re a victim of arrested for
prostitution than
victims to seek
restitution and to
human trafficking, you’re not a traffickers being
arrested or, frankly,
pursue civil actions.
Polaris, a national
criminal and you should not be purchasers of sex
anti-trafficking charged as such. being arrested,”
Vanderhoof said. “I
organization,
encourages states to WAYNE STENEHJEM still think that there’s
adopt Safe Harbor a lot of assumptions
ND ATTORNEY GENERAL
laws, which vary by and misconceptions
state. that need to be
In South Dakota, challenged.”
prostitution is decriminalized for juveniles 16 and For the “affirmative defense” portion of human
under. trafficking laws to be effective, the victims need
John Choi, county attorney for Ramsey County to know the opportunity to assert that defense
in Minnesota, said that state’s Safe Harbor law exists. Ideally, prosecutors, judges, public
was key to helping prosecutors go after traffickers. defenders and law enforcement, as well as victim
Even before the law took effect this past August, advocates, need training about the law,
law enforcement handled the juveniles in the child Vanderhoof said.
protection system rather than in juvenile court. More people nationally are supportive of
No state has a Safe Harbor-type law for adult children involved in commercial sex being
victims of sex trafficking, but some states and treated as victims, but not adults, she said.
local communities have approaches that come “That level of understanding and recognition
close, said Britanny Vanderhoof, chief of policy around adult victims of sex trafficking is not
counsel for Polaris. happening as widely, so that is still a level of
For example, New York and Louisiana have education we need to work on,” Vanderhoof said.
victims, but most “are South Dakota kids, and prosecutors saw evidence of organized
they’re very vulnerable kids,” he said. “That’s trafficking in their interviews with women
how these traffickers – they move into the caught up in the sex trade.
community, they’re part of the community – and “There really was a network of these traffickers
that’s how they identify” and target people. in Sioux Falls. These girls went from multiple
Many of the victims come from the American traffickers and these traffickers sometimes
Indian reservations in the state, including the worked together,” Johnson said.
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which straddles Of the 15 people sentenced to life for sex
North and South Dakota. In one case there, a trafficking minors since 2003, South Dakota’s
woman would offer “johns” a trade: sex with her three represent the most of any federal district,
niece in exchange for gas and beer money. said Michael Osborn, chief of the FBI’s Violent
Johnson’s first sex trafficking case – also South Crimes Against Children unit.
Dakota’s first – came in 2009, six months after he “People are sometimes surprised” by that,
became the state’s U.S. attorney. Six months later, Osborn said in a recent interview with Forum
another case popped up, and investigators and News Service.