Where Is The Line Between Victim And Offender?

Two very disturbing stories came across my news feed the other day having to do with sex trafficking.

In Wichita, Kansas, a girl who was rescued from trafficking five years ago is now being charged with crimes relating to human trafficking. Now 18, Kristen (name being withheld by the Wichita Eagle) was apparently involved in a second incident in July 2015, when she was 17. As a result of that second incident, Wichita Police filed human trafficking charges against her on her 18th birthday, in September.

Karen Countryman-Roswurm, director of the Center for Combating Human Trafficking said in the Eagle, “police turned on a victim and that prosecutors filed charges after Kristen stopped giving evidence against others.” Given the timing of the charges – on her birthday – I could easily believe that statement. You’d like to think that law enforcement and the criminal justice system are above things that look like payback, but they’re not.

It’s difficult to learn more about this case at the moment, because the Eagle is properly withholding Kristen’s last name, because she’s the victim of a sex crime. I’ve tried contacting CCHT as well as Eagle reporter Roy Wenzl without much success. But the basics of the story are disturbing, and I’ll try to keep an eye on it.

The second story concerns a 15-year-old Michigan girl who is headed to prison for nine years as an accessory to armed robbery.

Latesha Clay was part of a scheme where people would respond to an ad for sex with a teenager. After Clay accepted the money from one man, another teen pulled an Airsoft gun and robbed the customer, including forcing him to drive to an ATM and withdraw cash.

Let that sink in. These men responded to an ad to have sex with a teenager. They knew, or should have known, that she was under the age of consent in Michigan, which is 16.

It’s a cute little scheme, and it’s been done plenty in the past, usually by drug dealers. You show up and buy the drugs. Half a block away, they rob you, and they’ve got their drugs back, and your money, and what are you going to do? Tell the cops you were robbed of your drugs?

That was the plan here, but the cops got involved, and Clay was arrested, along with the other two people.

But why is she going to jail? And more importantly, why did Undersheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young assure robbery victims “that the department is not focused on investigating them for solicitation of prostitution in this case?”

Why is the robbery more important that the statutory rape charge? These robbery victims (and yes, they’re victims here, at the same time that they’re offenders) were trying to have sex with a teenager, and the undersheriff says, “That’s okay; we’re not worried about that right now.”

Why is everyone – or at least the media and law enforcement – apparently ignoring the idea of a 15-year-old who’s a mother of two? There’s no way that’s legal in Michigan, especially if, as Tits and Sass suggests, she was impregnated at 11 and 12.

T&S makes a very strong case that Clay is being handled the way she is because she’s a black girl, and I can buy that.

I find it pretty disgusting that all during the investigation, not a single officer stopped to say, “Hey wait. She’s under 16, and these guys were setting up to have sex with her. Maybe we should rethink this.”

Kent County Prosecutor Monica Janiskee should be removed from office for going along with the prosecution as well. There’s just no excuse.

CCHT is holding a rally for both Kristen and Clay, to help bring attention to their cases. Maybe this will help too.

Law enforcement in particular and society in general must work harder on understanding that there’s really no such thing as a child prostitute, especially one under the age of consent in each state. Someone who’s the victim of a sex crime can’t reasonably be thought of as the perpetrator of another sex crime. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking “teen prostitution” is okay.

Given what I know about how easy it is to coerce a “confession” out of someone who doesn’t really understand what’s going on, I have more than a little trouble accepting Clay’s guilty plea. The Innocence Project’s archives are full of false confessions and ill-advised guilty pleas, and I suspect that’s what happened here. I’m sorely disappointed in Clay’s representation, Janiskee’s prosecution, and Judge Jeffrey O’Hara’s handling of this case. The system failed Latesha Clay multiple times, and it’s done it again.