Prosecutors and state advocates who are pushing again this year for tougher anti-trafficking laws against those who force women to become sex slaves are facing a major roadblock ? Joseph F. Vallario.
Vallario, the powerful state delegate who chairs the House Judiciary Committee says such laws duplicate federal laws already on the books. “There are plenty of laws for handling this type of problem on the federal level,” he said. “Federal authorities also have the resources to deal with it,” Vallario said.
In fact, two similar bills that tried to address the problem never made it out of committee in the past sessions.
This time, however, advocates hope the bill they are introducing along with several disturbing cases where teenage girls were plucked from the streets of Baltimore and forced to work as prostitutes in Washington will get Vallario?s attention. The bill calls for a criminal statute against involuntary slavery and for changing the sale of a minor from a misdemeanor to a felony. Penalties range up to a 20-year prison sentence.
Supporters of the legislation formed a task force and have armed themselves with dozens of cases to support the bill.
“It?s a growing problem in Baltimore; women and sometimes children are being prostituted out of the city,” said Sidney Anne Ford, who is part of the task force and executive director of You Are Never Alone, a Baltimore-based outreach organization that provides counseling and drop-in services for prostitutes.
Victim advocate Joyce Lombardi, who chairs the task force, said, “The federal government has already put out a call to the states. If the [federal government] actually prosecuted all the cases they believe are out there, it would overwhelm them.”
In a recent case, a Baltimore man physically forced dozens of teenage girls, some who were young as fourteen, to become street prostitutes and advertise their services online, Lombardi said.
In another case, two 14-year-old girls and a 19-year-old girl were lured into a car with a promise of going to a party in Washington, but instead found themselves being force to prostitute themselves on New York Avenue in Washington, said Baltimore Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Marcus-Kurn. “We?ve seen several cases of girls being taken out of Baltimore and prostituted in D.C.,” she said.
One of the girls enticed to get into that car told The Examiner she faced physical threats unless she did what she was told. She ran to an undercover police officer, who helped her get back home.
