Arrests highlight 'prevalent' problem of human trafficking in Utah


6 photos
Save Story

Show 1 more video

Leer en español

Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Tara Pinnock was supposed to be in court Tuesday in Connecticut, requesting to be put in a program generally reserved for low-risk offenders.

Instead, she remained in the Salt Lake County Jail accused of forcing a kidnapped Manhattan woman into a cross-country trek of prostitution before the 23-year-old finally escaped in Salt Lake City.

Tammie Garcia Atkin, the victim witness coordinator for the Utah Attorney General's Office, said human trafficking is more prevalent than most people realize.

"I think people would be very surprised to learn that it's very prevalent here in Utah — and not just sex trafficking, that's not the only kind of trafficking," she said, noting that domestic servitude and "agriculture trafficking" — forcing immigrants to work from farm to farm — also exist.

In January, University of Utah students gathered to listen to several people talk about human trafficking problems in the U.S. today, including a 14-year-old girl who ended up in a sex trafficking ring.

Recently, the Utah Attorney General's Office arrested Victor Rax, accused of dealing drugs and trafficking teenage boys in Utah for years. Last week, the number of charges against him was increased to 63, including aggravated sexual abuse of a child, aggravated human trafficking for forced labor involving a child, forcible sodomy, child endangerment, witness tampering and drug possession with intent to distribute. Authorities have identified 16 victims whom they believe Rax abused.

"(Human trafficking) is more prevalent than we'd like to believe. Human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking in profitability … and it is the fastest growing criminal enterprise right now," Atkin said. "Modern-day slavery does exist."

Human trafficking is growing because it's a low-risk, high-return criminal enterprise, she said. Young girls and women forced into prostitution are often very vulnerable and don't have a lot of resources. They don't have strong family ties who would immediately recognize if they went missing, Atkin said, and they're generally too afraid to try to escape or are untrusting of police.

"Just because somebody has bars around them isn't the only way of being imprisoned," she said.

Atkin believes the number of cases being seen in Utah is due to Salt Lake City being a crossroads to other areas where human trafficking is a bigger problem, such as Las Vegas. Pinnock and Jean Joseph were reportedly heading farther west when they were arrested.

Utah Human Tafficking in Persons Task Force
Tipline: 801-200-3443

Indicators of Human Trafficking

  • Does teh person appear disconnected from family, friends, community organizations or houses of worship?
  • Has a child stopped attending school?
  • Has the person had a sudden or dramatic change in behavior?
  • Is a juvenile engaged in commercial sex acts?
  • Is the person disoriented or confused or showing signs of mental or physical abuse?
  • Does the person have bruises in various stages of healing?
  • Is the person fearful, timid or submissive?
  • Is the person often in the company of someone to whome he or she defers?
  • Does the person appear to be coached on what to say?
  • Does the person living in unsuitable conditions?
  • Does the person lack personal possessions and appear not to have a stable living situation?
  • Does the person have freedom of movement? Can the person freely leave where they live?

In the latest episode of human trafficking to make headlines in Salt Lake City, Pinnock, 24, of Albany, N.Y., was arrested Monday for investigation of human trafficking. U.S. marshals also placed a detainer on her. Joseph, 26, of Valley Stream, N.Y., was also booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of human trafficking, kidnapping, aggravated assault and rape.

Police believe Joseph kidnapped a 23-year-old woman in New York about two or three weeks ago near the Port Authority.

"Joseph reportedly struck the victim three times, causing the victim to lose consciousness," a Salt Lake County Jail report states. "The victim sustained a very large distended swollen eye/facial area and a half-inch scar."

When she woke up after being beaten to unconsciousness, she was in Pennsylvania, according to police. The group continued moving west, and she told police she was sexually assaulted twice in Chicago. The group also made stops in Denver, Grand Junction, Colo., and Salt Lake City, where the woman was "forced to engage in prostitution" in each of those cities, the report states.

The woman told police she tried to escape while in Denver but was unsuccessful. In Salt Lake City on Sunday, the woman tried to escape again and call 911 with a cellphone she had, and then hid until officers arrived.

The woman was placed in protective custody and was at an undisclosed location in Salt Lake County Tuesday, police said. But otherwise, local authorities released very little new information about the case Tuesday. Salt Lake police said the FBI was now working on the case.

Questions about whether the victim had been reported missing by friends or family or how she was able to obtain a cellphone remained unanswered.

Pinnock, who is accused of arranging prostitution clients for the victim, was arrested earlier this year in Connecticut as part of an effort to crack down on prostitution before the Super Bowl, according to a news release from Connecticut state police on Feb. 3. She was among nine people arrested as part of Operation Recovered Innocence.

"The operation was conducted in an effort to recover victims of child prostitution, which was in support of a larger FBI effort in the tri-state area to combat child prostitution during Super Bowl week," the release stated.

Four underage girls were rescued as part of that operation.

Pinnock was charged with prostitution, a class A misdemeanor, in Stamford Superior Court in Connecticut. She was released on a "promise to appear," according to court officials. Court records show Pinnock did appear for her Feb. 11 and Feb. 25 court dates. On Feb. 25, she applied for the "accelerated rehabilitation program," a kind of plea in abeyance generally given to defendants who have no prior criminal history.

Pinnock was supposed to appear in court Tuesday in Connecticut to find out whether a judge would allow her into the program. That hearing was postponed until April 15.

According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, between December 2007 and September 2013, the center received 275 calls that originated in Utah claiming human trafficking. Sixty-one of those calls were in 2013 alone.

The Utah Trafficking in Persons Task Force estimates that millions of men, women and children are trafficked around the world each year, and that human trafficking is a $32 billion dollar industry.

Photos

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Pat Reavy and Sandra Yi

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast