Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog
A police officer and former magistrate judge were charged with human trafficking and several other federal crimes for allegedly bringing a woman into the United States from India under false pretenses and subjecting her to a form of “modern day slavery” in Georgia, according to an article at www.ajc.com.
According to federal prosecutors, the defendants lied to the Indian victim and told her she would be employed as a nanny, but after she arrived in the United States, they refused to pay her, made her live in an unheated basement, limited her access to the outside and told her she was a criminal and threatened to have her arrested. When the victim was able to escape the house, one of the defendants reportedly contacted the Department of Homeland Security and reported that the victim may be a terrorist.
Federal human trafficking allegations are considered a top priority and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, according to representatives of the Department of Justice. Earlier this year, three defendants in New Jersey were given maximum sentences after pleading guilty to human trafficking for their role in bringing Hondurans into the United States, lodging them in cramped apartments and forcing them to work extensive hours dancing in bars for low wages that were taken away to pay for the cost of smuggling them into the country.