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Category: Sexual Assault & Trafficking

Young Survivors Discovered in Georgia’s Latest Sex Trafficking Bust Can Now Sue Their Exploiters for Compensation

As part of the “Operation Not Forgotten” series of sex trafficking investigations now in progress, no fewer than 20 missing minors, ranging in age from 17 years down to just six weeks, were located across Georgia this past May. Most were found in Cobb, Gwinnett, Fulton and DeKalb counties. Currently, authorities suspect that sex trafficking played a role in 16 of the 20 missing minor cases. The search was a collaborative effort between the Georgia Attorney General’s Offic...

Victims of Underage Pornography on Reddit May Now Be Able to Sue the Site and Win

An anonymous young woman has recently filed a potentially ground-breaking lawsuit against the self-proclaimed “front page of the internet,” Reddit. In her claim, she states that her ex-boyfriend has repeatedly posted images and videos of her engaged in sexual acts, taken when she was 16 and without her knowledge or consent, on various subreddits that allegedly encourage such content. She says she repeatedly reported the content to Reddit, which often took several days to respond, ...

Survivors of Atlanta Summer Camp Sexual Assaults Can Sue for Compensation

A suspect is in custody and has been charged with “several felonies,” following multiple accusations of sexual assault at the West End Family Life and Community Center Summer Camp in Atlanta. The suspect is male and in his 50s, but his name has not yet been released. Attendees of the camp range in age from 5-11, and the alleged assaults took place across the summers of 2016, 2017, and 2018. All of the children who have come forward so far are under the age of 12, though police ...

Sex Trafficking Sting at Fayette County Hotels Ends in 21 Arrests, but Many May Be Victims

Over the course of two nights at the end of last month, undercover police officers responded to prostitution advertisements and set up meetings at two hotels in Fayette County, one in Peachtree City and one in Fayetteville, as part of a coordinated human trafficking sting. Of the 21 women and men arrested in the sting, however, only four are suspected of pimping. Of the rest, 16 are being held only on prostitution and drug possession charges, and one on charges of prostitution and identity...

The Atlanta Massage Parlor Shooting Highlights a Fundamental Failure to Keep Spa Workers Safe

Last month, a man walked into three massage parlors in the Atlanta area and shot and killed a total of eight people, six of them Asian women. The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, has confessed and confirmed that the crime was sexually motivated, calling the women “temptations.” Though Long has been arrested and is currently awaiting trial for the murders, the social attitudes that reportedly motivated his actions remain, continuing to endanger other massage and spa workers. Worki...

New Legislation Could Make It Easier for Georgia Sex Trafficking Survivors to Win Compensation in Civil Court

Two important bills in Georgia’s fight against sex trafficking passed the State Senate on March 8th, the General Assembly’s crossover day. These bills will now advance to the House for further debate, and could well become law in the near future. The first, Senate Bill 33, explicitly protects sex trafficking survivors’ right to sue their traffickers for monetary compensation, plus legal costs. Under Bill 33, survivors would have until 10 years after the trafficking incident in question, or...

Underage Trafficking Victims in Coweta County Have Strong Grounds to Pursue Human Trafficking Lawsuits

Over the past year or so, Coweta County has become a significant focus in Georgia’s fight against sex trafficking. By searching social media for prostitution ads and working closely with organizations like the Human Exploitation Investigations Group and Homeland Security’s Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Group, local law enforcement has been able to set up several stings at Coweta County hotels. In November of 2019, officers made 15 arrests, two of them for pimping, one for pander...

Top Atlanta Resources for Escaping or Recovering from Sex Trafficking

As a law firm specializing in civil litigation, The Stoddard Firm tends to discuss issues like sex trafficking in terms of liability. However, we recognize that the litigation process is slow, and for many people facing sex trafficking, the idea of filing a lawsuit may seem impossibly distant and abstract. In this post, we’ll instead highlight just a few of the resources available to people in the Atlanta area who need immediate help avoiding, escaping, or healing from sex trafficking. ...

Can I Sue My Trafficker Even Though He Is in Prison?

The short answer is yes, you can sue a human trafficker, or indeed anyone who has harmed you with their negligent or illegal behavior, while they are incarcerated. There is no law preventing you from doing so, and there’s plenty of precedent for it. In fact, 80 survivors of Nxivm, the sex cult and alleged pyramid scheme that until recently was passing for an elite self-help group, are currently suing founder Keith Raniere for compensation. Their complaints range from sexual coercion to mon...

Carl Ferrer of Backpage Has Pled Guilty, But What About Lacey and Larkin?

Carl Ferrer, CEO of the infamous adult ad website, Backpage, has pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to facilitate prostitution, as well as three counts of money laundering. The money laundering was apparently an attempt to hide the true source of Backpage’s income from banks that would otherwise have refused to handle it. As part of his plea, Ferrer has also agreed to cooperate with the investigation and prosecution of the companies’ two founders, Michael Lacy and James Larkin. Ferr...