State senators joined the House in passing a bill that would reimburse human trafficking victims for the removal of tattoos, or 'brands,' which offenders put on them to show 'ownership.'
Victims of human trafficking who have been "branded" with tattoos by those enslaving them got support from the Illinois Senate Wednesday, according to Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office. State senators voted 58-0 to allow victims to be reimbursed out of the Illinois Crime Victims Compensation Fund for the removal of the tattoos. The Illinois House had earlier unanimously passed the measure, and it now goes to the governor. Criminal offenders who engage in human trafficking subject their victims to horrific abuse, Madigan's office said in a statement. They frequently tattoo victims to show "ownership" of them. “Human trafficking victims are subjected to horrific physical and psychological abuse,” said Madigan, whose office helped …
After police cracked a suburban prostitution ring, Cook County State's Attorney called its mastermind the 'Chief Operating Officer of a sex trafficking house of horrors.' Women were beaten, starved and drugged to force them to prostitute, prosecutors say.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez announced her office has brought serious charges in a sex trafficking case in Schiller Park, near Park Ridge and Niles. Her office released the following statement: A suburban man and two of his associates have been charged with multiple Class X felony offenses relating to human trafficking for allegedly operating a prostitution ring based in suburban Cook County in which vulnerable women were forced into a life of drug addiction, violence and prostitution, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced today. Keith Williams, 52, of Schiller Park, has been charged with Involuntary Servitude, a Class X Felony punishable by up to 30 years, as well as Trafficking In Persons, a Class One Felony. …
Alex Campbell used violence and threats to keep four women from Ukraine and Belarus working in a commercial sex operation. He took their documents, gave them little or no pay and subsistence. Feds sentenced him for sex-trafficking and other crimes.
Alex Campbell, a former Glenview resident and Mt. Prospect massage parlor owner, was sentenced to life in prison Monday for sex-trafficking, forced labor, harboring illegal aliens, confiscating passports to further forced labor and extorting four foreign women whom he mentally and physically abused while forcing them to work for him, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Justice Department announced. “The seriousness of Campbell’s crimes cannot be overstated, nor could the government put into words the magnitude of harm or the life-altering consequences of Campbell’s actions," prosecutors argued in urging a life sentence, according to a press release from the Justice Department. "An evaluation of the seriousness of what Campbell has done must…
Hiring of private detective follows his trafficking accusation against acquaintance.
The 36-year-old owner of a kiosk at Golf Mill Shopping Center told police about 6:45 p.m. May 18 an acquaintance through previous business transactions came to his station with a 38-year-old man, who was introduced as a private investigator. The acquaintance told the businessman that he had hired the man to conduct an inquiry that would put him behind bars. The kiosk owner refused to speak with the private investigator and said any communication would have to go through his attorney. The two men then walked a short distance away and continued to watch the businessman. The complainant told police he suspected the private investigator was hired in retaliation over a human trafficking accusation that he made against his acquaintance. The …
Clark Kent
8:24 pm on Friday, May 27, 2011
I hope that the recent award Niles received for being a great place to live and raise a family can't be revoked. more ›