Why Human Traffickers Don’t Go To Prison

On March 29, 2012, a 35-page arrest warrant was unsealed by New Britain Superior Court in Connecticut. The details of this one case reveal much about how the world of human trafficking is alive and well in every community across America . . . and why those guilty of these crimes rarely see appropriate justice.

According to court documents, several witnesses told Connecticut State Police investigators that their fellow State Police Trooper, Pearl Kelly-Paris, actively ran a human trafficking operation with her husband, Jaykuan Paris. Jaykuan is the brother of Dennis Paris, a Connecticut man who is currently serving a 30-year federal prison sentence for “sex trafficking of a minor” among several other human trafficking crimes. That case is the subject of my recent book, “The Berlin Turnpike: A True Story of Human Trafficking in America.”

Together, Jaykuan and Pearl operated the illegal business out of their New Britain, Connecticut home and through a local phone service. Similar to the extensive investigation which led to the previous arrest and conviction of his brother, Dennis, State police were able to trace information confirming the illegal activity by tapping Jaykuan Paris’ cell phones and land lines. This most recent investigation began after federal investigators found information that Jaykuan and Pearl were arranging “for the prostitution of several females, in some cases by means of force, fraud and/or coercion” – the legal definition of human trafficking - and that they regularly advertised in the “escort” section of several websites including Backpage.com.

Indeed, along with his wife, Jaykuan Paris was a pimp for several women in Connecticut. The words of the witnesses/victims in these statements clearly expose the truth behind the abuse women suffer from the tyrannical behavior of their violent pimps. According to the victims under his control Jaykuan would regularly “beat his women” if they received “bad reviews” on “escort” service websites. The users of these sites, often men who refer to themselves as “hobbyists,” readily “chat” about and “rate” the women whose sexual services they have paid for

Another witness/victim told police that while Pearl was on active-duty as a Connecticut State Trooper she arrived at a motel in Rocky Hill, Connecticut - in uniform and driving her State Police cruiser - and handed a digital camera to her husband, Mr. Paris. He then proceeded to photograph the witness/victim, his wife, Pearl - the Trooper - and another woman. All three women, including the State Trooper, wore black lingerie and face masks for the photographs. He then posted the photos throughout online “escort” advertisements in Backpage.com. The “escort” ads would then generate calls from men looking to pay for sex.

Even though the two-year State and Federal investigation proved that both Jaykuan Paris and Pearl Kelly-Parris were in clear violation of human trafficking crimes as defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), neither have been charged accordingly.

Jaykuan was arrested in November, 2011 and charged by the State of Connecticut only with second-degree promoting prostitution. He pleaded No Contest and will serve less than four years in prison. Pearl was arrested in May, 2012 and charged by the State of Connecticut with second-degree promoting prostitution and second-degree conspiracy to promote prostitution. She has pleaded not guilty to each of these crimes. Her trial date has been postponed several times and has not yet taken place.

Since both were guilty of the same crimes, why did one brother, Dennis Paris, receive a Federal Human Trafficking conviction, along with a 30-year sentence, while the other brother, Jaykuan, was allowed to plead No Contest to far less serious State charges – even though Jaykuan used far more violence against his victims than Dennis?

The answer points to drastic and dangerous inconsistencies in the enforcement of State Human Trafficking laws throughout the United States. Many of these laws are less than ten years old. And most have not yet been tested in court due to prosecutorial cowardice. Quite simply, no State Prosecutor wants to be the first to try someone under a new law, no matter how clear the violation. The risk to their career as a prosecutor, should the case be thrown out on some technicality, turned over on appeal, or worse, outright lost to the defense, is too great. No one wants to be the first person to mess up a State Human Trafficking trial.

The consequence is that State Prosecutors simply reduce the charges to some lesser crime – like “promoting prostitution” – with which they are more familiar and are almost guaranteed a conviction.

“We tried for more, but this is all they would do,” explained a Connecticut State Police Spokesperson when I asked him about the comparatively minor charges against Jaykuan and Pearl. He was talking about the evidence the State Police had and the limited charges with which the Connecticut State Prosecutors returned.

The current situation is this: Federal prosecutors simply do not have the financial or human resources to convict every crime that is presented to them, even though their own investigators (FBI, IRS, ICE, etc.) have overwhelming evidence. Using a criteria they will never publicly admit, they prioritize the cases into which they will to pour their time, talent and treasure. The rest they offer back to the States where the crimes took place. It’s then up to the individual States to decide whether or not to prosecute and what laws to use to get a conviction.

Since Human Trafficking laws are relatively new and virtually untested, serious crimes that are clearly in violation of Federal Law are reduced to relatively minor charges . . . and therefore become easy convictions for prosecutors.

It is a dilemma that leaves victims with no real justice. The solution is to first recognize that this perceived high-professional-risk situation exists for prosecutors. Then, State Legislatures must provide more viable prosecutorial tools for human trafficking laws to be used. This means that legislators will have to listen to prosecutors and pass laws that will allow human traffickers to be convicted of human trafficking crimes.

Currently, the Connecticut State Legislature is considering two bills which would not only help victims of human trafficking, but also give them incentives to become active – and protected – witnesses against their former pimps. One law promises financial restitution to victims. The other expunges the “prostitution” criminal record of anyone who is identified as a human trafficking victim. The combination of these two laws would begin to build the arsenal for state prosecutors who sincerely want justice done.

If these laws had been in place two years ago, perhaps Jaykuan and Dennis would be sharing a cell in Federal prison today.

A Hard Fought Victory

In 2007, a landmark Human Trafficking trial was held in the Hartford, Connecticut Federal Court. In the testimony of that trial the Hartford Advocate, a local newspaper that is typical of alternative weeklies across America, was mentioned over 70 times. Why? Because Dennis Paris, the defendant in the trial, used the newspaper as his sole channel for advertising his victims in what he claimed was an "Escort" service. One of his “escort” was 16 years old, another just 14. Read more about this case and the Hartford Advocate’s involvement in this Vanity Fair Magazine article or in my book, “The Berlin Turnpike: A True Story of Human Trafficking in America.”

Yet, even though the Department of Justice proved these ads were used to promote human trafficking, the Hartford Advocate continued to run these weekly "escort" advertisements in print, online, and even on their own Facebook Page. For years, the Hartford Advocate, owned by The Hartford Courant, "the nation's oldest continually running newspaper," which is owned by the mammoth Tribune Company, made money from this suffering every week.

In 2010, several of my colleagues and I began a campaign to force the Advocate to remove these ads. Along with my book, these efforts included articles, news reports, radio and television interviews, public awareness events, and successfully writing and passing legislation in Connecticut.

After thousands of hours of work and people calling for the Advocate to remove these abusive ads, they continued to be published five years after they were proven by Federal Prosecutors to be complicit in human trafficking crimes.

Then, on Friday, November 2, 2012 I was informed the ads were being pulled by the paper. After requesting clarification, I was sent this email by, Communications Manager Jennifer T. Humes, “For more than a year, we have been in the process of re-positioning the Advocate Weekly newspapers - which includes the Hartford Advocate, the New Haven Advocate and the Fairfield Weekly – moving them from an “alternative” publication and to a go-to ‘entertainment’ resource. The most recent step in that process was the decision to no longer publish classified advertising which consists of massage/escort and adult spa ads. In order to remain relevant to our readers, the Advocate Weekly newspapers will continually evolve to meet the changing interests of those we serve.”

One advertising account representative at the company told me she was informed of the decision this way, “They told me they were cleaning up the back pages of the Advocate.”

Indeed, they are. Five years after the trial of Dennis Paris concluded that these ads were promoting slavery, the Advocate has finally cleaned house by removing the ads.

As this one newspaper takes up the courage to stop running these ads, then other publications and websites should be highly motivated to do the right thing and end them as well.

Tribune Owned Newspapers Complicit in Human Trafficking Advertising

Dennis Paris

Photo courtesy Vanity Fair

(The following story is based on an excerpt from The Berlin Turnpike: A True Story of Human Trafficking in America.)

The hypocrisy of human trafficking runs deep in America.

A prominent “Vision” and “Values” plaque hangs in the spacious lobby of the Hartford Courant offices on Broad Street in Hartford, Connecticut. The proud display is a public declaration of their corporate philosophy and mission so all the world will know the Tribune owned newspaper is devoted to work that “will change our culture.”

Indeed, the Hartford Courant has a long history of cultural change. It has been the paper of record in Connecticut for more than 200 years. With a modern-day circulation of 200,000-300,000 it began as a weekly, the Connecticut Courant, on October 29, 1764. The paper now claims the title “America’s oldest continuously published newspaper” while adopting the slogan, “Older than the nation.”

According to its website, “It’s the newspaper in which George Washington placed an ad to lease part of his Mount Vernon land. It’s where Noah Webster’s “Blue-Backed Speller” was first published. Thomas Jefferson sued this newspaper for libel – and lost. And Mark Twain tried to buy stock in this paper but his offer was turned down.”

It also claims that, “During the Revolutionary War, the Courant had the largest circulation of any newspaper in the colonies and was an influential backer of the rebel cause.”

When the nation became divided over the issue of slavery, “The Courant was inspired by a visit Abraham Lincoln made to Hartford.” Becoming a staunch supporter of Lincoln’s campaign to become president, the paper printed the headline, “‘VICTORY, VICTORY, WE’VE GOT ‘EM.’” upon his election.

However, the Courant was not always opposed to the idea of slavery throughout its long history. In 2002, the paper published a self-expose entitled, “Complicity: Slavery And The Courant - Promoting And Protecting Human Bondage.” The extensive and well researched series of articles reported that, “On April 29, 1765, the Connecticut Courant published its first slave-related ad: ‘Joseph Enos of Union seeks the return of Bristol, his 30-year-old runaway slave.’ The next week, an anonymous advertiser offered for sale a ‘likely, healthy good natured NEGRO BOY, about 15. Inquire of T. Green.’ T. Green was Thomas Green, the first publisher of the Courant.”

For the next 58 years, according to the article, the Courant ran “slavery advertisements” and “that by publishing these ads, the newspaper was promoting and protecting the very institution of slavery.”

114 years after Emancipation, the Courant was purchased by Times Mirror in 1979, and after winning Pulitzer Prizes in 1992 and 1999, was sold along with Times Mirror and two local television stations, WTIC and WCCT, to the Tribune Company in 2000, one of the largest multimedia companies in the world. One year prior to the Tribune purchase, the Hartford Courant acquired the Valley Advocate collection of “alternative” weekly papers including the Hartford Advocate.

Founded in 1973 by two former employees of the Hartford Courant, the weekly paper provides investigative journalism from a mostly liberal or countercultural perspective often criticizing and exposing important stories focusing on corporate, political, and media corruption in greater Hartford and throughout Connecticut.

Like hundreds of similar papers in America, the Hartford Advocate has received criticism for accepting advertisements like those in the Federal Human Trafficking Trial of Dennis Paris. During the trial, the Hartford Advocate was mentioned over 60 times as the exclusive channel of advertising human trafficking victims. The Hartford Advocate’s “Escort” section was used by the pimps to sell - and the johns to buy - young women in and around one of America’s wealthiest cities.

In 2000, referring to its advertising from over 150 earlier, the Hartford Courant issued a public apology “for its role in slavery.” Perhaps it was an attempt to “Apply high standards of ethical behavior in all that we do,” as stated on the “Vision” and “Values” plaque hanging in their lobby.

Eleven years after their apology, and four years after the conviction of a human trafficker who used the Hartford Advocate to sell young women, the weekly paper continues to run advertisements for “Escorts.” Though prosecutors from the US Department of Justice proved these advertisements were used to promote human trafficking, the Tribune owned Hartford Advocate still receives money every week from those who exploit the most vulnerable among us.

Right now, you can comment on this stunning hypocrisy. Go to the Hartford Courant’s “Mission” page and comment on their complicity in this violation of human rights. If this one newspaper takes a step in the right direction by removing these advertisements, then pressure may build against the Tribune Company to discontinue them across their corporate owned publications. Remind them that among the declarations on the plaque hanging in the lobby of the Hartford Courant is the statement, “We are responsible for our own destiny.” Tell them it is unfortunate they do not allow the same freedom of choice to the citizens of the city they serve.