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UNDER OUR NOSES

Hays County not exempt from modern-day slavery
“we Had The Opportunity To Speak To The Jury. They Asked Us To Deliver A Message To The Young Lady. They Said, ‘we Sentenced Them Life — Because You Were Worth It.’”kirsta Leeburg Melton

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on the existence and human toll of what amounts to modern day slavery. It contains some graphic descriptions, so readers be warned.

“It’s not a crime against the state.

“It’s not a crime against the border.

“It’s a crime against humanity!”

Kirsta Leeburg Melton doesn’t mince words when it comes to human trafficking in Texas. Melton, deputy criminal chief on human trafficking and transnational/organized crime for the Texas Attorney General office, spoke on the subject during a Rotary Club District 5840 training symposium in San Marcos.

“Human trafficking is essentially modern-day slavery,” Melton said. “It’s the exploitation of men, women, and children, for forced labor or forced sex — by a third party, for their own profit or gain.”

Melton cited examples beginning when she was with the district attorney’s office in San Antonio.

“The first case I was involved with was a 13-year old child, the second of four children, living primarily with her mother due to a breakup in the family,” Melton remembered. “She went to school sometimes — sometimes she didn’t. You’ve got kids like this in every community in Texas.”

On this day, Melton said the young lady decides not to attend school, but rather go to the corner store, just a couple of blocks from her home. On the way she picked up a friend, a woman she knew. The two decided to walk to a nearby home to purchase drugs — specifically marijuana.

“At some point, she asked to use the restroom. One of two brothers, who owned the home, took her to what passed as a bathroom,” Melton said. “Keep in mind this is happening five minutes from the River Walk and the Alamo — the heart of San Antonio.”

Melton said once the girl was in the restroom, one of the brothers locked the door — which was made of metal — from the outside. They then told the lady who came with the juvenile, that she’d gone back to the corner store, and to leave.

The woman left and went back to the store only to find the young lady still missing. She went back to the house and the two men told her she was not there and to leave.

“After about an hour had passed, the guys went into the bathroom, grabbed the girl and dragged her down the hall. They stripped her naked, spreadeagle, and tied her to the bed with a yellow nylon ropes that people use to tie things to their cars, and then they raped her,” Melton said. “They decided to keep her and sell her to anyone with extra money, after buying drugs, for the next couple of weeks.”

Melton said up to 20 “buyers,” some repeat customers, raped the 13-year child while she lay in her own urine and feces.

That was the first case the city of San Antonio heard of human trafficking, Melton said. It was one of the first cases tried in the state as a trafficking case. At the end of the of the trial, the jury found the defendant guilty of human trafficking, compelling prostitution, aggravated kidnapping and super aggravated sexual assault of a child and gave him four life sentences.

“We had the opportunity to speak to the jury,” Melton said. “They asked us to deliver a message to the young lady. They said, ‘We sentenced them life — because you were worth it.’”

Melton said it’s nothing more than a myth that we live in a slavery-free world.

“Today there are more people enslaved than were during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,” she said. “It affects more than 25 million people worldwide in addition to 15 million in forced marriages. This is a business model that creates hundreds of billions of dollars each year.”

She said in the U.S. it impacts all 50 states. The current number for 2018 is approximately 41,000 unique human trafficking cases that have been identified through the National Human Trafficking hotline.

San Marcos hasn’t been immune to human trafficking cases. In April of 2016 Melton and colleague Geoff Barr tried a case; but more recently was in September 2017 against Bernell Quillens.

Quillens trafficked a 16-year-old girl by using an online escort advertisement and securing a hotel for the victim to be repeatedly sexually assaulted.

The crime of trafficking was committed when Quillens posted ads offering the child for sale for sex on Backpage and then two buyers purchased her.

Nancy Cisneros, a recruiter for Quillens, was not physically present when the offenses occurred. She did, however, plead guilty to trafficking and was sentenced to 15 years in prison prior to Quillens’ trial. Quillens went to trial and received 40 years in prison from the jury.

Melton said last year a driver of an 18-wheeler truck abandoned his cargo at a Wal-Mart in San Antonio. In the non-air conditioned trailer, with no water or food or means to escape, 10 people died, and dozens went to the hospital. While tragic, Melton said it was not a human trafficking case.

“There was no evidence these people, being smuggled in the United States, were going to be forced to engage in forced labor,” she said.

Melton said trafficking can require no movement at all.

“You can be trafficked in your own home. A San Antonio mom decided she wanted to make more money. She started bringing sex buyers into her home to rape her six-yearold daughter,” Melton said. “The buyer leaves — the girl does not. Then, the mom addicts her daughter to heroin to keep her compliant.”

At 12 the girl was sold to the woman’s first husband, and he continued to traffic her and beat her.

“By the time she’s was in her 30s she had been a lifelong heroin addict and had multiple teenage children she was estranged from, “Melton said.

Melton said there are four categories of human trafficking: Adult labor, adult sex, child labor, and child sex trafficking.

It’s a subject that cut across all socio-economic boundaries Melton said.

“People have value no matter who they are, where they come from, no matter what’s been done to them,” Melton said. “If we’re to begin with as a fundamental bottom line principle, our country would be a different place.”

“We had the opportunity to speak to the jury. They asked us to deliver a message to the young lady. They said, ‘We sentenced them life — because you were worth it.’”
Kirsta Leeburg Melton
Texas Attorney General’s Office

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054