Monday, June 20, 2005
MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND DISTRICT ATTORNEY BROWN ANNOUNCE “OPERATION GUARDIAN” TO COMBAT SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN HELD CAPTIVE IN BONDAGE OF PROSTITUTION
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by Mount Sinai Hospital’s Sexual Assault Victims Intervention (SAVI) Program Executive Director Iona Siegel, today announced at a news conference held in the District Attorney’s conference room in Kew Gardens a new initiative to enhance the prosecution of pimps who lure children into prostitution and sexually exploit them.
Mayor Bloomberg said, “The sexual exploitation of children is a horrible crime that causes physical and emotional damage which can never be undone. To go after the criminals who exploit children, we need the cooperation of their victims -– which means getting them the help they need so that they can break away from those who exploit them. Operation Guardian will get pimps off the streets and in jail, and get their victims the help they need.”
District Attorney Brown said, “In my view there can be no public safety issue more compelling than to protect our children from sexual exploitation in organized prostitution. Law enforcement, government and the social service community must take every step possible to prevent such victimization of children and rescue those trapped in its snare from a human bondage that destroys their innocence, hope and dreams.”
Executive Director Siegel said, “Child sexual exploitation is a violation of children's fundamental rights. When youth are exposed to disease, drugs and physical and sexual violence, it perpetuates the cycle of violence. A SAVI clinician will work closely with the Queens District Attorney's Office to provide counseling and make referrals for medical care and educational opportunities. Our goal is to help youth in their struggle to be healthy, self-sufficient and safe."
According to the District Attorney, the initiative is being funded by grants from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The initiative draws upon resources and staff from the District Attorney’s office’s Special Proceeding Bureau, the New York City Police Department’s Child Recovery Unit and the Mount Sinai Hospital SAVI program. The funds set up a demonstration project –- that could ultimately be expanded citywide -- to investigate and prosecute commercial exploitation of children in prostitution crimes with special emphasis on protecting minors.
District Attorney Brown said that since 2000 over 70 children aged 16 and under have been arrested and charged in Queens County with prostitution or loitering for prostitution and that his office prosecutes about two new cases monthly against defendants who promote underage prostitution. Since 2000 63 pimps have been prosecuted in Queens County for prostituting young women less than 19 years of age, including 35 pimps who were prosecuted for prostituting children age 16 and under and sent to prison to serve sentences up to 12 years. Last year, 150 children under 17 were arrested for prostitution citywide, 53 in Queens County.
The District Attorney cited three cases prosecuted by his office as examples of how the demonstration project would help vulnerable, young and troubled runaway girls.
- the prosecution in 2001 of Tito Guzman, 22, and James Pope, 18, who prostituted a runaway girl from Brooklyn who had just turned 12, in the 108th Precinct in Long Island City near Queens Plaza South at the Queensborough Bridge. The victim was lured with a promise of overnight shelter, raped, put on the street the following day and forced to perform hundreds of sexual acts for money with males and to give all the proceeds to the defendants. Both defendants pled guilty to the felony of Promoting Prostitution and received state prison sentences of up to six years. The victim was referred to Mount Sinai’s SAVI program.
- the prosecution in 2004 of Woodolph Romeo, 25, and John Fleury, 25, who prostituted at runaway girls –- a 13-year-old from Queens and a 14-year-old from the Bronx –- in the 113th and 103rd Precincts in Southeast Queens. The victims were lured with the promise of shelter and food, raped and sodomized, put on the street the following day and forced to perform hundred of sexual acts for money with males and to give all the proceeds to the defendants. Both defendants pled guilty to the felony of Promoting Prostitution and have received state prison sentences of up to six years. The victims were referred to Family Court and received social services.
- the prosecutions in 2004 and 2005 of Christine Waltzer, 26, Jackson Metellus, 26, and Michael Streat, 28, who prostituted a 15-year-old runaway from upstate. All three were convicted of Promoting Prostitution in the Second Degree and received prison sentences ranging up to nine years. Social workers from SAVI provided counseling.
District Attorney Brown said, “The initiative offers us the opportunity to work as a team with the police and SAVI to aggressively and pro-actively identify, investigate and prosecute criminals who sexually exploit children by prostituting them in a modern day version of slavery and human trafficking.”
The District Attorney said that his office will assign a team of prosecutors, investigators and support staff to undertake a specialized effort with a 24/7 capability to target child exploitation incidents in Queens County. The team will foster cooperative partnerships with federal, state and local law enforcement in specialized investigative and undercover “sting” operations, handle prosecution vertically so that the same prosecutor takes the case from arrest through trial, intensive intelligence gathering and de-briefings for identification of emerging trends in child exploitation incidents in the community and use civil enforcement remedies to support criminal prosecutions.
District Attorney Brown said, “My office staff will work closely with the police to establish investigative priorities that focus on prostitution operations using children. We will target promoters, recruiters and other individuals who operate and profit from these criminal enterprises.”
The District Attorney said that the efforts will include detailed analysis of financial records and other documentation and use of sophisticated investigative tools including intensive surveillance, drafting of subpoenas, search warrants, and other applications, as needed. Since these complex matters frequently require response and handling by multiple courts and child welfare agencies, special efforts will also be made to establish a strong network of liaisons and information sharing to ensure a coordinated response that minimizes trauma to child victims.
District Attorney Brown said that SAVI, the project’s not-for-profit partner, will assign counselors on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide comprehensive support services to child victims of sexual and physical exploitation who become identified in the course of investigative initiatives.
The District Attorney said that SAVI counselors will provide a wide array of services, including crisis intervention, counseling, safety planning, referrals, emergency shelter and re-location services, advocacy for child victims with child welfare and other agencies and the courts, as well as ongoing support and court accompaniment in instances in which child victims are needed as witnesses in ongoing criminal prosecutions.
District Attorney Brown said, “We believe that this specialized, multi-disciplinary approach with comprehensive support services will enable us to more effectively address child prostitution operations through aggressive prosecution efforts, while working toward the goal of guiding child victims toward a healthier, life affirming future.”
The District Attorney added, “Mayor Bloomberg is to be very much commended for his leadership in helping to develop this very important initiative -- and for the support that he continues to give to the law enforcement community during these difficult times.