Cases
Santa Clara County secured its first conviction under state trafficking laws
San Mateo County Times, September 10, 2009
Timothy Richardson, 35, and Robert Hendricks, 30, pleaded guilty in mid-August to trafficking two women in their 20s for commercial sex, beginning in November, when Hendricks met the victims in Lake Tahoe. Hendricks forced the women into acts of prostitution over the next several weeks. He then sold them to Richardson (sounds like the slave trade, huh?). The women were often separated and beaten, and one woman’s life was threatened. At some point, one of them managed to reach a relative, who called the Santa Clara police.
Richardson received a sentence of 6 years and 4 months, while Hendricks received a 3-year sentence. (No typo here, they were sentenced under current California human trafficking law.)
Walnut Creek Woman Found Guilty of Trafficking Nanny from Peru
U.S. Department of State press release, October 9, 2009; Fox Reno, November 18, 2009; SF Gate, April 15, 2010 
Walnut Creek, Calif. real estate agent was sentenced to five years under FEDERAL law, $123,740 in restitution and three years of supervised release for enslaving a Peruvian nanny for nearly two years.
Mabelle de la Rosa Dann (picture at right), 46, also known as Mabelle Crabbe, lured the Peruvian nanny to the Bay Area with promises of a good job and living condition. The nanny, identified as Zoraida Pena Canal, said she was virtually held captive and forced to work 15 hours a day to care for Dann’s three children and household. Dann took away her passport. She barred her from Spanish-language television or communicating with her friends and family in Peru, destroyed a radio she had listened to, limited the amount of food she was allowed to eat. She verbally and physically abused by Dann. Pena Canal finally escaped on April 16, 2008 with the help of officials and parents from the elementary school.
News Vidoes
Oakland Police Department – Teen girls forced into prostitution by pimps in Oakland, California. Our society has created a “class of forgotten children” – with an attitude that these are the “bad” girls. Little do we know that these girls are slaves, forced to sell their bodies to get money for their pimps. (Part of the MSNBC Special “Sex Slaves in America”) – 7 min
San Diego County Sheriff’s Office reenactment of a “routine” traffic stop. This shows how crucial it is that our law enforcement knows how to spot victims of trafficking.
There are also labor slaves like Elena. She was trafficked from Peru by an LA professor. She is free today because of a heroic college student. A majority of hidden slaves are rescued because of “nosy” neighbors. This video is Elena’s story, in her own words. (There’s a short commercial in the beginning.) – 6 min.
Shared Hope International investigates sex slaves in Las Vegas – 2 min.
This woman’s story in Detroit is the catalyst for California Against Slavery 2010. The two men who enslaved her and 15 other women got 7 years and 14 years in prison. This shows how current laws against trafficking are not commensurate with the gravity of the crime. (MSNBC Special “Sex Slaves in America”) – 7 min.
More Cases in California
From the California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery (CA ACTS) report Human Trafficking in California,” October 2007 page 18
The crime of human trafficking can involve one individual or a large group of victims. Examples of human trafficking cases in California reveal the wide variety of enterprises and situations in which individuals and groups are subjected to slave-like conditions:
In 2001, a Berkeley landlord and restaurateur, Lakireddy Bali Reddy, was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison for smuggling teenage girls from India in a sex and labor exploitation ring spanning 15 years and operating in India and California. He repeatedly raped and sexually abused his victims and forced them to work in his businesses. A 17-year old girl died of carbon monoxide poisoning in an apartment he owned. (Human Rights Center. 2005. Freedom Denied: Forced Labor in California. University of California, Berkeley.)
In December 2006, a financial settlement was reached on behalf of 48 Thai welders hired through Kota Manpower Inc. of Thailand and Los Angeles, accused of forcing them to live in squalor while working for little or no pay. (Los Angeles Times. December 8, 2006. “Human trafficking case ends for 48 Thai welders.”)
In June 2006, a couple from Egypt pleaded guilty to forcing a 10-year-old Egyptian girl to work as a domestic servant to their family of seven in Irvine. The couple had forced the girl to sleep in the garage, with no light or ventilation, and had forbidden her to attend school or see a doctor in two years. (Orange County Register. June 30, 2006. “Irvine pair guilty in child slave case ” “ Egyptian nationals plead guilty to four charges in Irvine human-trafficking cases”; United States Attorney, Central District of California, press release. February 2, 2005. “Irvine couple indicted on involuntary servitude charges for holding girl as virtual slave to serve their family.”)
In July 2005, the federal government arrested more than 40 people in Los Angeles and San Francisco and seized more than $3 million in illicit proceeds in Operation Gilded Cage. This operation involved more than 100 Korean women, many of whom told investigators that they were taken from their country against their will and forced to work as erotic masseuses. (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. July 1, 2005. “U.S. Agents Crack West Coast Human Smuggling, Trafficking Ring.”)
In September 2004, a financial settlement was reached on behalf of Nena Jimeno Ruiz, who was lured to Los Angeles from the Philippines under false pretenses, then forced to work 18-hour days at the home of an executive at Sony Pictures. She had to sleep on a dog bed and was threatened with never seeing her family again if she complained. (Santa Monica Daily Press. September 3, 2004.)
In 2001, Victoria Island Farms settled a civil suit that resulted in the payment of back wages to California asparagus harvesters who were forced to harvest the high-priced vegetable in substandard conditions for virtually no pay in the San Joaquin Delta region of California. Hired by a farm labor contractor, the workers, recruited mostly from Mexico, were powerless to stop the huge deductions for transportation and other “debts” the employer took from their weekly paychecks.
In 2000, Sammy Cheung was sentenced to over 12 years in prison for leading a criminal ring in which he recruited several women and girls from Mexico to work as prostitutes in Long Beach. During this time he kept the victims under guard and forced them to work without pay until police freed the captives after raiding the brothel.
In 1999, a Thai woman, Supawan Veerapool, was sentenced to eight years in prison for bringing a domestic worker from Thailand to Los Angeles to provide household support in her home, confiscating the worker’s passport. She then forced her to work 24-hour days six days a week for nine years until the victim escaped in 1998.
In 1995, 72 Thai workers were discovered in a garment factory in the City of El Monte, Los Angeles County, in a compound surrounded by fences tipped with barbed wire. Some had been held for as long as seven years. (New York Times. August 4, 1995. “Thai Workers Are Set Free in California.”)
