FINDING OTHER WAYS TO PIMP PROSTITUTES

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/justice_department_warns_local_courts_about_illegal_enforcement_of_fees_and  This article is because a lot of people are being incarcerated right now illegally for not paying certain fees and fines.  Including fees for those who have been arrested for prostitution and report fines up to $900 they're having to pay the court to avoid jail.

One of the reasons the legal system is creating a class system of "victims" vs. "prostitute's" as you know is not only about the way one is treated, but also who they're going to make money off of.    This case highlights one of the reasons why I've been fighting this system  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/167edfaedfa14b078bbfb2be0c196775/prosecutors-drop-charges-somali-sex-trafficking-case

By creating a "monetization" of the "trafficking victim" what we see here is the police lied, the prosecutor lied, everyone lied in order to dub a sexually active teenager as a "trafficking victim".  Men were falsely identified and jailed.  Money was given to the parents from the victims fund to silence them if they suspected something was wrong.  The prosecutor was advancing her career off this topic.  I want you to also note WE WERE BEING EXCLUDED FROM THIS CASE BECAUSE SHE WAS COVERING HER TRACKS.

Which is sadly becoming an increasing pushing us out of many offices right now who are being less than honest about what's going on with respect to the treatment of those labeled as "prostitutes" or "sex trafficking victims" in what is clearly becoming a class system they're creating between one they're "helping" and one they're STILL treating like a "criminal".  Worse than "criminal" however are the ones I'm seeing becoming "victims" of the system now.

What happens to a person who is simply a "prostitute" now arrested within the system?  Let me tell you about a call I got from a diversion program in San Diego, California.  This woman told me of how two women were arrested for prostitution in San Diego who lived in Las Vegas, Nevada.  They were told by the court they had to attend this diversion program in order to avoid being incarcerated.  The program cost approximately $600, and was held weekly.  The director of this program was LAUGHING about how these two women were "commuting down from Las Vegas weekly in order to attend her classes".

I was appalled.   I then did some math.  Let's add in the cost of either flying or driving from Las Vegas to San Diego weekly.  Then either renting a car or gasoline expenses.  Certainly a hotel for at least one night stay-over because that's not a trip you can easily do in one day.  On top of the expense, the goal of this class was to help them exit prostitution.  Now I ask you HOW are they supposed to quit prostitution when they now have the weekly expense AND the weekly trip in their schedule during the weekday to attend this diversion class?

ALL COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY.  Any man or woman who has been arrested for prostitution, and found guilty, who would like to avoid jail, even if there is a mandatory jail term in the sentencing, CAN simply ask the court if they can attend www.sexworkersanonymous.com.  You can not be denied this request anymore than the court can deny an addict Narcotics Anonymous, a wife-beater "Batterers Anonymous", an alcoholic "Alcoholics Anonymous" and so on.

If they try and deny you this option - you can challenge them on discrimination as there are laws already set in place for this by AA.   There is no cost for our program, and you can attend meetings from anywhere in the world from the privacy of your computer or phone.  We provide letters to the court, and can even provide you with community service hours.  We do not attack the sex industry.  We are not a religious organization.  We take the same approach to the industry that AA takes to alcohol - only that if you want help to stop then they can help.  They do not lobby for Prohibition nor attack liquor stores.  They don't go into parties telling people they're wrong for drinking nor push on restaurants to stop serving alcohol.

I asked this woman WHY would she take these womens' money, and put them through the ordeal of weekly attendance at her program, when all she had to do was refer them to us?  The "intent" certainly of her program was to help these women leave the industry, but here what she's doing is ensuring they will continue in prostitution in order to pay not only for this travel, but also for her court fees.  She then responded "if they don't - they'll go to jail".  As I started talking to her about getting these women out of such a position and into our program where they would not be having to make this weekly trip - it was very apparent the only thing on this woman's mind was the loss of income to her.  There was not one expression out of her of interest in these womens' welfare - only in the money she was receiving for these "classes".

She then told me "oh this is nothing new - we have women all the time coming in from out of state to attend our diversion classes to avoid jail".   I then said we needed to "do something" to change this so this could stop.  She then pointed out this would cost her money.  I said I'd take it up with the court directly and she then let me know she would "make sure" that we were smeared so badly with the court she wouldn't lose her meal ticket.   To me, that's a pimp.  This woman only cared about her money - not about what it was doing to these women or to our reputation either.

I've been hearing from all over the country stories like "Project Rose".  Only the so called "counselors" at Project Rose were "pastoral counselors" who were not licensed by the state.  I found one woman in charge claiming to be a social worker who did not have a social worker license by the state.  The counseling center they were being forced to go to weekly where they were being prescribed psychiatric medications turned out not to be licensed either.   I found the same thing in Las Vegas - http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas-psychiatric-clinic-closes-under-federal-pressure

There in Las Vegas I found Judge Voy was sending juveniles he felt were prostitutes, who had not been charged with any crimes, into the Caliente Jail instead of sending them to www.childrenofthenight.org which was what happened to them before Courtroom 12 was opened to supposedly "help" these girls.  Yes this was a violation of "habeas corpus" but the ACLU said unless we knew the name of the girl then they could not file a complaint.  We couldn't get the name because this was a juvenile court system.   But in this courtroom he was putting them into "protective" custody to "stop them from prostituting" because he claimed "there was no where else to send them" which was a lie.  http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/teen-prostitutes-have-friend

Judge Voy was locking these girls up in jail, rather than allowing or sending them to Children of the Night, who had been where they went before he opened this court, and before he started using these girls in order to ask for money to open a 14 bed residential program which wouldn't solve the problem.  He was seeing more than 14 girls a week in his court - so how would a 14 bed facility solve the problem?  By the way, he's been asking for the money for this program since 2007 and as of 2016 no such program has been opened yet either.  Where the money and the five acres he was donated for this - who knows.

But I do know this.  The girls sent to the Caliente Jail were being put on psychiatric medications that not only were not tested as safe on juveniles, but that were quite expensive.  A typical round of Serequel to sleep, Abilify to stabilize mood, and Lexapro for depression, the girls said most of them were placed on cost the state about $3,000 a month on average.   Not counting the doctor's visit monthly to prescribe, and the nurse's visit twice daily to deliver the medications.  One of the doctor's prescribing these medications, Dr. Zedek, was sued for taking "kickbacks" from the pharmaceutical companies for millions of dollars in fines.

I personally witnessed Dr. Zedek say certain people were "therapists" he was using to talk to these girls.  However, when I questioned them about their actual credentials - one of these so called "therapists" was a cocktail waitress at the same time.  When I pushed her further to find out what her actual credentials were - I learned she did not have a BA yet, she was a PSR (which she got after a few hours of training), and that the state was being billed for her time by Dr. Zedek's rate.  He was then "subcontracting" her work out paying her 1/4 of what he was receiving for her work with juveniles.

The system that I was witnessing was they were being put on these medications while in jail.  Then told they could get free housing once out of jail as long as they continued on the medications and seeing the therapists, and going to the groups.  All being billed to the state.   I then witnessed one adult female having to be at home twice a day for a nurse to come by and hand her the medications instead of being given a bottle like others were.  Upon questioning, I learned she was in a medical study about "trafficking victims".  However, this woman was a "prostitute" who did not have a pimp and she was not working as a "trafficking victim".  She would go into casinos and pick up johns - that's not a "trafficking victim".

Upon further questioning, I found all of the therapists were not therapists at the center she was going into weekly for a weekly prescription.  Instead of getting a month's worth of pills, she was only getting a week's worth because I found they were "not licensed" to do a month.  In fact, they weren't licensed at all.  The therapists have been hired from the Philippines and barely spoke English.  They also were not licensed therapists, counselors, or social workers.   The housing they were being placed in was section 8 housing the landlords couldn't rent out to anyone else because of how horrible and dangerous the buildings were.  So these women were being told they had to stay in dangerous substandard housing next to crack dealers and real pimps in order to avoid jail while the landlords were not able to collect vouchers for rent paying them more money than they'd be able to get otherwise, if at all.

This is not just California or Nevada or Pennsylvania.  Our hotline is hearing from women all over this country with horror stories saying about the same thing.   I'm hearing from mothers who are telling me they're being told if they don't identify the fathers of their children as their "trafficker" that they will lose custody of their children.  http://www.ketv.com/news/sex-trafficking-survivor-shares-her-story-of-abuse/25315152  They are told straight up "either you testify against him as your pimp or we take the baby from you".

Our program has been a useful tool to relay information and empower sex workers.  We only started being blocked from receiving referrals after we warned Jeane Palfrey, the DC Madam, that it is a very common tactic to arrest one's parents for pimping and money laundering as was done in my personal case, and with Heidi Fleiss's parents in order to try and make a flimsy case stick, or to force someone to "rat' out other people.  My mother was charged with pimping me and then we were told the "whole thing will go away if you give up other people".  We refused to turn on anyone else and wound up with everything we owned taken by the government, a hefty fine, and two years probation.  When we warned Jeane to be prepared for her mother to be arrested - her attorney at the time, Montgomery Sibley, went to visit her mother at the same moment the police were walking up the driveway.  He convinced them it would be bad press to arrest an elderly sick woman and they left.  Montgomery was disbarred and we have wound up not being referred by anyone in law enforcement to prostitutes or sex trafficking victims since they realized we were empowering our community with knowledge.

We are also hearing a lot of the same thing from those in trafficking programs - they are being (1) put into section 8 housing in horrible neighborhoods, (2) they are being put on psychiatric medications they have not been properly tested for first to see if medical needed, or "off label" uses, (3) they are being the subjects of some type of research projects, (4) they are being put into college courses even if they have no idea what they want to study for and saddled with student loans, (5) they're being sent to counselors where information on them is being recorded in their files which have later been reported subpena'd by the court for investigation on charging other people with crimes, (6) advocates, counselors, coaches, etc., are not subject to the same confidentiality laws as a therapist and people they have spoken to they thought in confidence are being drawn into prosecutions (7) IRS is coming after them for unpaid taxes on their criminal earnings.

Further, they are being put into trafficking programs where they are (1) asked to help them raise money by making things, engaging in fund raisers, soliciting donations, or otherwise used for these programs to raise money they receive no portion of, (2) they are being promoted in the media full-face for the purposes of these programs raising money whether it's donations or grants, (3) they have having to pay for these "classes" or "programs" or  "fees" that if they don't pay they are threatened with going to jail.

Those who get these degrees are then reporting to us they are then not hired because of their past, or fired once their past comes to light.  They are also not told about scholarships available to them when saddled with student loans.   We are hearing lately about those who are being arrested for not paying on these student loans they were saddled with http://www.fox26houston.com/news/local-news/92232732-story

The more horrific stories we're hearing about is the taking of their children as "unfit parents".   We first heard of a church in Los Angeles being led by an ex-sex worker who was HIV positive that was doing strip club outreach.  We made contact with her to let her know about SWA.  Our experience has been if we get rebuffed that something "fishy" is usually going on because if you're working with alcoholics - then you'd probably utilize AA in some fashion.  If not, then maybe you're up to something else.  So we looked further and found that teams were being organized to go into strip clubs looking for single women who were pregnant with their pimp's baby.

They were then saying they were going to put them into a "safe house" called "Mercy Ministries".  http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/02/21/dark-side-mercy-ministries/  Mind you this is the same town where the Mary Magdalene Program was operating at the time who was not a religious program nor had we been hearing anything but positive things out of the residents about them at that time. So why that place?  We went onto their site to see they had an adoption application right on the same site they were saying was a "safe house".

Now anyone who has just been rescued from a pimp is likely to be heavily traumatized, and coming off drugs.  Now why would anyone expect a woman in that condition, and pregnant, to be making a permanent decision like adoption during her first year clean even not counting hormones?   It sounded irresponsible to us so we dug further.  Upon getting to know the staff we were being told they were ganging up on these women, convincing them they were "horrible mothers because they were prostitutes" and then pushed into signing adoption papers.  Then the minute they got the baby - they were being cast into the streets.   We started knocking on some doors about them and there was an investigation done, but they are still operating.  Oh and the average adoption fee is $5000 to $8000 per baby by the way.

Multiple this throughout the USA - we're being told by women they are being pushed into either adopting out their babies, or they are having their children taken away from them UNLESS they have a man they can throw under the bus as their "trafficker" and "show remorse".  Those who don't claim "victim" status are finding their kids being taken away and put into the foster care system, or even pushed into adoption.   They are further claiming the pimps are recruiting right out of the homes they're being put into - http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-adv-foster-overflow-20150301-story.html

Stuart Dunnings III by the way is not an isolated incident.  I have reports from women all over the country that when they are finding attorney's to help them fight a prostitution case, or to help them get their kids back. or fight a pimp back for divorce and custody, they are having to give the attorney sex on top of cash in order not to be left defenseless.  The problem is however they're not getting the best defense out of such a lawyer.  Stuart Dunnings for example did not tell the woman he was forcing to have sex with him in order to avoid jail for a prostitution charge was again all she had to do was to ask the court to come to our program in lieu of jail.   One can also attend our program in order to shorten probation or expunge records.  But why would he tell her this when he wanted sex from her being afraid of going to jail otherwise?

Our power comes from communicating with each other.  Knowledge is power.  We are out of the sex industry, clean from drugs, and are therefore in a position to help fight for you in a way those who are still in a criminal lifestyle can not.  You also don't know when the person next to you is an informant sometimes.  There's more than one way to exploit us, and our children, for money, and it seems that pimps can come in all forms - even the church and government offices sometimes.  Predators and abusers try and control you also by isolating you.  They tell you "oh don't talk to them" or even terrorize you into what will happen if you do speak to other people.  That's a warning sign that maybe this person is trying to control you whenever they're trying to isolate you.  The common denominator about these cases is they blocked them from knowing about, or calling our hotline, to connect to others for help.

So please - if you get arrested or you are in trouble - please know you can call www.sexworkersanonymous.com and speak to another man or woman in recovery who might be able to help.  When you call here - you're not calling me.  You're calling a network of people who want to help who are choosing to remain "anonymous" because we are targeted.

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