'Trafficking-in-persons' bill picks up broad support in Senate
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Sen. Teresa Fedor of Toledo has proposed a bill that would apply not only to sex crimes but also to forced labor such as coerced farm workers. A co-sponsor, Sen. Tim Grendell, hopes to get the bill to Gov. Ted Strickland before the summer recess.(THE BLADE )
By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF
COLUMBUS - Ohio appears to be undergoing a bit of an attitude adjustment when it comes to facing the growing problem of modern-day slavery.
A year ago, the best Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) could muster among her colleagues was a task force to study the problem and a new "human-trafficking" specification that could elevate penalties when attached to existing crimes such as compelling prostitution. Even then, it was limited to the sex trade.
Now, three weeks after that task force suggested Toledo is the fourth largest human-trafficking city in the nation, Ms. Fedor has broad support in the Senate for a bill creating a stand-alone crime of "trafficking in persons." The felony would apply not only to forced prostitution, pornography, and similar sex crimes, but also to forced labor such as domestic servitude and coerced farm workers.
"The fact is this crime is very hard to detect," Ms. Fedor said. "This legislation will drag it out of the shadows. It is difficult to see and very complicated. This legislation will help to expose the criminal enterprise behind the trafficking and provide justice for victims and protection for our children."
Senate Bill 235 creates the crime of "trafficking in persons," which would apply to the subjugation of adults and children into labor or the sex trade against their will. It would be a second-degree felony, punishable by two to eight years in prison.
The crime would apply to people who "recruit, lure, entice, solicit, isolate, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, or maintain" a person, or attempt to do so, with the knowledge or reason to believe that the victim will be subjected to "involuntary servitude," prostitution, or pornography.
Sen. Tim Grendell (R., Chesterland), chairman of the Senate Judiciary-Criminal Justice Committee, has joined Ms. Fedor as joint sponsor. He plans to usher the bill quickly through his committee and hopes to get it to Gov. Ted Strickland's desk before the legislature's summer recess.
"In my district in Geauga County, there were two massage parlors," he said. "I believe they were brothels. They finally did close down, but they found several women who were victims of human trafficking. I am really surprised at the cases of suburban girls who are victims of human trafficking."
Last month, a subset of Attorney General Richard Cordray's Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission estimated that more than 1,800 people may be trafficked in the state at any given time. It ranked metropolitan Toledo fourth in the nation behind Miami, Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas in terms of raw numbers of arrests, investigations, and rescues of children involved in sex trafficking.
The city received national attention in 2005 when a federal investigation into a child prostitution ring in Harrisburg, Pa., revealed that nine area girls had been sold as slaves and at least 12 of the 31 people charged had ties to Toledo.
"This legislation on human-trafficking has been in the General Assembly for several years," said Kathleen Davis, national training coordinator for the Polaris Project. The Washington-based organization takes its name from the star followed by escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad.
"It's getting more consensus from Republicans, Democrats, and other players that it was highly needed," she said.
She said Ohio's bill is on a par with the laws of most other states, more than 40 of which have some form of human-trafficking law. Ohio, however, remains the only state with a trafficking specification, which operates like Ohio's firearms specification, increasing penalties when that element is attached to other crimes.
A year ago, the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association objected to the creation of a new crime, arguing that this activity is already illegal in Ohio under other names and is being prosecuted whenever possible.
This time, the association helped to craft the bill.
Although he believes this bill is better than Ms. Fedor's prior proposal, association spokesman John Murphy said he's still not sure it will translate into more prosecutions.
"The main problem with getting a case is the difficulty in finding a witness who is willing to testify," Mr. Murphy said. "Victims of these offenses tend to be in some cases foreigners, and in just about every case they have great fear of the people, or pimps, who are committing these offenses. … This bill, by itself, will not increase the number of cases."
Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.
toledoblade.com -- The Blade ~ Toledo Ohio
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