Orange County District Attorney Press Release
For Immediate Release: November 4, 2013
SANTA ANA – Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas spoke out against human trafficking today during witness testimony before the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs. At a field hearing held at California State University, Fullerton, titled, “Regional Perspectives in the Global Fight Against Human Trafficking,” District Attorney Rackauckas addressed congress members Chairman Edward R. Royce, Ranking Member Karen Bass, Texas Representative Randy K. Weber Sr., and California Representatives Alan S. Lowenthal and Dana Rohrabacher.
District Attorney Rackauckas’ testimony is as follows:
Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Bass, and other distinguished members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, I am Tony Rackauckas and I serve as the elected District Attorney for Orange County, the second largest county in the State. If Orange County were a state, it would be the 30th most populous state in the country. Economically, no other state even comes close to Orange County. The median family income in Orange County is $85,000 and only Maryland comes close at $70,000. Our office files approximately 65,000 cases a year, and our felony conviction rate is over 90 percent.
Thank you for convening this hearing on one of the most significant abuses that is plaguing us locally and globally, as a $32 billion dollar criminal enterprise, second only to narcotics sales in profitability.
Chairman Royce, thank you for your continued leadership in this fight, including the recent introduction of the new bill – H.R. 3344, the Forte Act – The Fraudulent Overseas Recruitment and Trafficking Elimination Act of 2013.
150 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and declared that “all persons held as slaves … henceforth shall be free.” Today, 150 years later, we have been given a new mandate by state and national legislation. More than two-thirds of the commercial sex victims in the U.S. are American citizens, while a third of them are trafficked from foreign countries. It is time we abolish modern-day slavery, including the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children.
Human exploitation and trafficking generally comes in two forms –forced labor, which we believe are highly unreported, and the majority in the form of commercial sexual exploitation. Unfortunately, the things that make our County so great and a tourist destination, with the mild weather and the available wealth, make our County one of the circuit stops for these sex traffickers and modern-day slave owners.
The most concerning cases are the children who are being prostituted on the streets, in strip clubs and brothels, and child pornography is that being produced and traded on the Internet around the world simply with a click of the mouse. No child grows up hoping to one day be sold for sex.
Shockingly, the average age of a child being trafficked in this country is 12 … a little girl who has not even reached her teens. These victims are being isolated, coerced, seduced, threatened and beaten into turning out profits for individuals with absolute disregard for other human beings. One of our defendants made $25,000 in two weeks off just one trafficked victim.
One defendant denied medical care for a young woman who was begging to see a doctor for her burning pelvic region. Another refused a shivering girl from coming inside from the cold. When one of the victims pleaded by text, “I can’t keep anything down u don’t care.” The defendant’s response? “(Expletive) eat crackers.”
Career criminals and gang members have decided that exploiting humans is cheaper and safer than trafficking drugs and guns. A typical modern-day slave owner is Berneal Holman, who was convicted of pandering a 16-year-old victim in Orange County. Before he perpetrated this crime, he had previously attempted to rape a 10-year-old girl and tried to use a 13-year-old girl to turn tricks on the 10-year-old.
Like the slaves of the past before they were emancipated, modern-day sex slaves are branded with tattoos of their owner’s names. They are being bullied and beaten into selling their bodies, some over 10 times a day. For many of these victims, the slave owner is the only family they have and are forced to call these predators “daddy.” Some of these victims are foreign women who are lured with the promise of earning a lot of cash to work a legitimate job and then are stripped of their passports and forced instead to work in brothels. Some of these brothels are located in luxury apartments in the upper class neighborhood of Orange County.
In order to protect these victims, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office responded to the mandate of the People by formalizing our efforts and launching a new vertical prosecution unit named HEAT, which stands for Human Exploitation and Trafficking. The HEAT Unit scraped conventional and traditional ways of law enforcement and took a fresh, comprehensive approach to solve the problem using a tactical plan called PERP – Prosecution, Education, Resources, and Publicity. With the new weapons provided by Proposition 35, these defendants are going away to state prison for multiple years and even life terms. We have been educating police officers, prosecutors, students and community members. We want to produce webinars and videos to take the message directly to parents and children.
These human trafficking victims need to be rescued and we need resources to do that. They need a place to go, or they will end up back with their abusers. In Orange County, the public-private partnership made up of corporations, non-profits, faith-based groups, law enforcement, and victims’ rights groups work hard to rescue these girls off the street. But sadly, we need a lot more resources.
We are also working to expose the sex purchasers in our attempt to shed light on these crimes from the shadows of the night. We are refusing to use the euphemism of “John” to describe these defendants and instead call them what they are – sex purchasers – and we are publishing their names and their mug shots. We also raised awareness through our recent “Keep Calm and Beat H.E.A.T. Rocking & Rally.” We made more than 200,000 direct-citizen contacts to raise awareness and the rock concert was a huge hit.
All of the law enforcement in Orange County is united and working together closely. As a result, the HEAT Unit is batting a thousand percent in our felony conviction rate. We have sent 24 defendants to state prison, even during the post-AB 109 era, with their sentences ranging from one to eight years. We currently have over 40 active felony cases with five defendants facing life counts and many others facing a mandatory sentence minimum of five to eight years in prison. We’ve had six victims that were foreign nationals, and we presently have multiple cases currently under investigation in which the victims are foreign nationals.
With pride, I report to you that a defendant has been grumbling while serving time in Orange County jail, “If I was in another county, I would be out.” With legislation and prosecutions all over the country, perhaps we can make all human traffickers fear and loathe our government.
Thank you again for conducting this forum so we can end modern-day slavery now. Thank you.
To view the testimony, please visit http://1.usa.gov/19NtXEz.
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Tony Rackauckas, District Attorney 401 Civic Center Drive West Santa Ana, CA 92701
Contacts:
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408
Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami Spokesperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486
TRUTH. The whole truth and nothing but the truth is what we need to look closely at when considering re-electing Mr. Tony Rackauckas. He has a history of good and not so good (as do we all), but lately I suggest his competency for good judgment is in question. Perhaps for the sake of Mr. Rackauckas we should NOT re-elect him. There is a time for all good men to step aside and let a younger attorney that has shown themselves capable. My supervisor Todd Spitzer or even one of Tony’s top staff members should step up. I have a fondness for sports but even I would consider it cruel to put an old horse that was once a grand champion on a race track. I’m not calling Mr. Rackauckas an old hag just that there are better choices to be had. I submit the reason Tony had no opponents in the past is because of the respect his colleagues have for the man (not a bad thing). In sports time demands retirement like that of Michael Jorden to whom many hated to see leave the basketball COURT. I’m sure it’s also true with this DA that has held his position for so long. Think about it…even our county supervisors have to leave their seats after a third term. Tony’s had a good run. I don’t want him to continue and we all end up regretting it. The man put the community in harm’s way by allowing a convicted registered sex offender to be alone with women as a hairstylist for the past 14 years after his conviction for assaulting a woman in his salon. This is just one of many missteps and bad judgments of our DA. Okay, I’ll through myself under the bus and say I was that registered sex offender. Tony in a way saved my life by my conviction. I was forced into treatment while on probation but while I was a registrant on probation Tony did no follow through thereby placing the public at great risk. I looked over my therapy notes from back then and I was truly a threat (IMO) to public safety. Why did Tony allow a convicted registered sex offender to work in that capacity? Tony appeared before the Anaheim city council (10/09/12) and stated on the record he would support my getting a Certificate of Rehabilitation but come the day in court he had his deputy DA recant the offer. I find that odd since he allowed me to be alone with women in a salon environment for the last 14 years. It gets worse. (Let me look at the client cards) I serviced two of the DA’s staff members (not to give their names) on 10/21/11. I did their hair into the night. When I was finished I walked them to their minivan for safety. REALLY!?! A registered sex offender walked two of the DA’s staff members to their car in the dark for their safety? (I have their hand written client cards to prove this factual) I guess I was okay according to Tony to do such but not safe enough to receive a Cert, of Rehab. Really? Now about competency and sound judgment. Another example: Why would the DA take a murder case recently to which he flopped? Although he is an attorney and can do such but as DA isn’t his position more that of a leader and administrator. It would be like having our sheriff standing on the corner giving out parking tickets. Can she do it? Yes, would she be as proficient as her staff that does it every day? Probably not. Again we need a DA that exercises good judgment. TRUTH