The Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime boosted its budget this year but nixed funding for a vital legal service that helps human trafficking survivors move forward: expungement of prostitution charges.
Read moreVying to hold Harvey Weinstein liable under an expansion of sex-trafficking statutes, an attorney for two of the producer’s accusers told a federal judge Wednesday that “Harvey Weinstein is a pimp in a tuxedo.”
Read moreTexas authorities said Thursday that Backpage.com will plead guilty to human trafficking and its leader will plead guilty to money laundering, one week after the classified ad website was seized by federal officials.
Read moreFederal prosecutors have charged the creators of the website Backpage.com, one of the largest web forums for classified ads, with facilitating prostitution and conspiracy to launder money in a 93-count indictment unsealed Monday in Arizona.
Read moreFederal law enforcement authorities are in the process of seizing online classified site Backpage.com and its affiliated websites.
Read moreJudges from across the country Tuesday discussed best practices for helping child sex trafficking victims caught up in the juvenile justice system, which they said should not include detention as a means to keep children safe.
Read moreTexas Governor Greg Abbott unveiled a plan to ask the Legislature for more than $35 million to crack down on sex traffickers, beef up investigations into state lawmakers accused of sexual harassment, and create a do-not-hire registry for teachers convicted of preying on students.
Read moreCalifornia recently joined 36 other states with laws to vacate criminal convictions for victims of human trafficking, but the Golden State’s law is being touted as among the most robust.
Read moreA Cuban-American bail bondsman who calls himself the best bounty hunter in Houston is on the other side of the law, appearing in court Monday to face federal charges that he and his girlfriend ran a sex-trafficking ring that forced four Colombian women into prostitution and debt bondage.
Read moreMissouri Attorney General Joshua Hawley announced plans Thursday to ramp up his anti-sex trafficking efforts, two days after a federal judge tossed a lawsuit against his office filed by notorious ad website Backpage.com.
Read moreThe story of three teenage girls rescued from a pimp in a Chatham County, Georgia motel in 2015 was an eye-opener for victim advocates and law enforcement officials. But with no safe house to take them to and their parents not to be found, two of three girls was simply released. Today, their whereabouts are unknown.
Read moreA who’s who of state and local lawmakers in San Diego Tuesday said young military men and schools should be key players in combating sex trafficking in California, to help eradicate this form of modern-day slavery.
Read moreBay Area prosecutors have dropped charges against an Oakland police officer embroiled in last year’s police sex scandal, after a state judge threw out similar allegations against two other officers for insufficient evidence.
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A former Oklahoma state senator who quit after being accused of hiring a teenage boy on Craigslist to have sex now faces additional federal child pornography and sex-trafficking charges.
Read moreCalifornia will pursue felony charges for the second time against Backpage.com after a state judge Wednesday allowed money laundering counts to stand, though he dismissed pimping charges against the website’s executives.
Read moreThe woman at the heart of the police sex abuse scandal that rocked Oakland, California, last year sued the neighboring city of Richmond, its current and former police chiefs and six other officers Thursday, accusing them of sexually trafficking her in exchange for police protection and information.
Read moreMissouri’s attorney general Tuesday asked a federal judge to dismiss Backpage.com’s “frivolous” constitutional lawsuit, saying “compelling evidence” shows that Backpage creates and controls ads “for the sexual exploitation and rape of human-trafficking victims, including minors.”
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An Alabama woman claims in court that local news outlets incorrectly identified her and her minor relative as being involved in a human trafficking and sexual assault case by publishing photos of them instead of the suspect.
Read moreThree Jane Does claims in a federal complaint that Backpage.com, its CEO Carl Ferrer and part-owners Michael Lacey and James Larkin failed to stop its website users from trafficking them in the child sex trade.
Read moreA defamation lawsuit linked to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein ended Wednesday in an undisclosed settlement dismissing the case brought by a woman who says she was Epstein’s sex slave.
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