Disabusing the abusers, USA, August 1

http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=7483&TM=32547.21
8/1/2007 8:59:00 PM

Disabusing the abusersDomestic violence seminar focuses on the office
by Richard Greenberg, Associate Editor

Domestic abuse is not confined to the home. Its tentacles can reach almost anywhere, including the workplace.

Which is why a dozen listeners gathered last Thursday in a decidedly upscale workplace-the sprawling, 11th-floor offices of Bingham McCutchen, a K Street law firm that employs more than 300 people.

The attendees, all employees of the firm, assembled in a sleek, Scandinavian-style conference room to hear how they can combat domestic abuse a phenomenon that is chronic, pervasive and crosses all socioeconomic lines, according to Lora Griff, a licensed social worker with the Rockville-based Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse.

Thursday's session, conducted by Griff, was the kickoff of JCADA's Corporate Wellness Program, under which local businesses are invited to sponsor JCADA-organized seminars. The new initiative is an opportunity not only to spread the word about domestic violence, but for JCADA to expand its fund-raising base, according to organization representatives.

Bingham McCutchen paid $2,500 to host Thursday's session, which was arranged with the help of David Butler, a partner at the law firm and whose wife, Sharon, is a JCADA board member.
Until now, most JCADA workshops have been conducted at synagogues, day schools and other Jewish institutions. They often donate money to JCADA in response to the organization's requests but the contribution usually is considerably less than $2,500 per session. The Corporate Wellness Program is JCADA's first concerted programatic foray outside the Jewish community.

JCADA's treasurer, Ellen Haber, said that although the Corporate Wellness Program was created primarily to help raise awareness about domestic abuse, "money is a factor for every nonprofit in the United States, so, yes, that's part of our approach, too."

The caseload of JCADA, whose current budget is about $225,000, has mushroomed in the past few years, and in the process, the notion that Jews are immune from domestic abuse has been exploded, Griff told the listeners Thursday. No segment of society is untouched by this scourge, she added, explaining that domestic abuse can take many forms.

It can involve everything from physical violence to economic intimidation to psychological assaults to forced isolation. The male spouse is almost always the perpetrator, and he often begins his abusive behavior years earlier as a teenage dater.

The resultant toll, said Griff, is enormous in terms of injury, death and other types of trauma, as well as lost workplace productivity. The Centers for Disease Control has estimated that domestic violence accounts for $727 million annually in reduced worker output the result of absenteeism and tardiness, among other factors. Worksite murders by abusive spouses-turned-stalkers are not uncommon.

Several audience members nodded when Griff asked if any of them had encountered domestic abuse firsthand. "These are not stereotypes or fakes or fantasies; they are very, very real," said attendee Sonja Minor, a 48-year-old legal secretary who lives in Forestville, Md. "I can talk for hours on this."

Minor said a co-worker at her former place of employment in Washington was married for seven years to an abusive, "psychotically insane" man who eventually threatened his spouse with a knife at a colleague's going-away party. The husband was taken into custody. The woman and her four small children then relocated to Georgia, where she got a new job "and did very well for herself," said Minor. "There is a need for programs like this one; they really work."
Griff told the audience members that when they see a friend or acquaintance who exhibits signs of physical or emotional abuse, they should gently and confidentially approach that person, comfort her, provide support and ultimately encourage her to seek help.

Victims who are planning on leaving an abusive relationship, she said, should develop a "safety plan" that includes preparation of a "flight kit" that includes money, documents, extra car keys and clothes. It should be hidden in a safe place.

Employers can do many things to guard against domestic abuse and to help accommodate its victims. They include:

• Making sure that the workplace has a detailed domestic-abuse response program.
• Referring abused employees to appropriate resources.
• Enabling victims to take time off from work to attend to abuse-related needs.

Couple accused of human trafficking, Hungary, August 1

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1586628.0.couple_accused_of_human_trafficking.php

Couple accused of human trafficking
By Edward Chadwick
A HUNGARIAN man and his girlfriend have appeared in court charged with human trafficking and forcing a teenager to work as a prostitute.

Imre Orsos, aged 48, of Chorley Old Road, Bolton, and Monika Pandur, aged 19, of Raphael Street, Halliwell, appeared at Bolton Magistrates' Court yesterday.

The charges relate to a woman, aged 19, who is alleged to have been brought into the country last month by the two.

They are also charged with causing prostitution for financial gain. They were remanded in to custody and will return to the court on August 7.

Mother gets 15 years for forcing teen daughters into prostitution

Posted on Thu, Jul. 19, 2007

The Associated Press
LEXINGTON, S.C. --

A mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday after she admitted she sold her teenage daughters as prostitutes.

The woman's lawyer told the judge her family needed money for food, but prosecutors said she used the money to feed her addiction to crack cocaine.

The name of the mother is being withheld because it could identify her daughters and The Associated Press does not generally identify alleged victims of sex crimes.

The girls, who were 15 and 17 when their mother was arrested in January, are in the custody of the Department of Social Services and receiving intense counseling, authorities said.

The father of the teens faces charges because authorities said he knew what the mother was doing. Three men also are awaiting trial for buying sex from the teens, prosecutors said.

Before being sentenced, the mother apologized to her daughters, who were not in the courtroom. "I'd like to tell my girls I'm sorry and I love them," she said.

But Circuit Judge Kenneth Goode said he wasn't swayed by her remorse.

"I've known many families who've gone through huge financial straits," Goode said. "And they didn't resort to what you did."

Man on Trial in 'Sex Tourism' Case, July 17, 2007

AP Online
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 8:00:00 PM
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A wealthy motel owner accused of sexually
abusing boys from a poor Eastern European village tossed money
around to ingratiate himself with people he met, a federal
prosecutor said in his opening statement at the man's trial.

Anthony Mark Bianchi, 44, of North Wildwood, N.J., is being
tried under a little-tested 2003 law designed to thwart "sex
tourism" by trying suspected overseas child predators in U.S.
courts. Bianchi has been accused of assaulting nearly a dozen
minors on foreign soil.

Bianchi's attorney, high-profile defense lawyer Mark Geragos,
said his client is being falsely accused by Moldovan boys who are
getting what amounts to a swank prosecution-funded trip to the U.S.
in exchange for their testimony.

Four of eight accusers who testified at a closed-door court
hearing in the former Soviet republic recanted, while the others
changed their stories drastically, Geragos said. Prosecutors have
said some of the accusers were too embarrassed to say in their home
country what happened.

Bianchi is accused of assaulting boys from Trebujeni, Moldova, a
remote village of 600 to 700 people, between 2003 and 2005. Federal
prosecutor Michael Levy told jurors the defendant spread his money
around there for sinister reasons.

Bianchi allegedly gave a television and $25 to one family that
innocently let their son stay with him one night, prosecutors said.

"Everything he did was designed to make friends with these
boys," Levy said. "And then, when their guards were down, he
began his advances."

Prosecutors charge that Bianchi, through a local translator who
helped procure the boys, assaulted teenagers in exchange for money,
liquor, gifts and trips, including trips to Cuba and Romania.

Prosecutors suggested that only someone with ulterior motives
would vacation in the isolated village of Trebujeni, where most of
the accusers live, but Geragos said the town draws tourists with
its scenic beauty and hilltop monastery.

"There are no four or five-star amenities, but it's hardly some
impoverished place that no one would ever go," Geragos said.

He described Bianchi -- who with his parents owned a New Jersey
beach motel -- as a veteran traveler who sought out offbeat
destinations. Bianchi liked to stay in small boarding houses to get
to know the locals, Geragos said.

Bianchi was convicted of Russian charges connected to children
from the same village in 2000; he was sentenced to three years in
prison but immediately expelled from the country.

About 50 people, including Bianchi, have been charged to date
under what's known as the Protect Act. About 30 of them have been
convicted.

Pair imprisoned for running teen-prostitution ring, July 9, 2007

Posted by Jim Nichols July 09, 2007 16:28PM

The Plain Dealer

A judge imprisoned a woman today for two years for running a teen-prostitution ring out of her Garfield Heights apartment, and locked up a male accomplice for twice as long.

Samantha Hunter, 36, pleaded guilty in May to prostitution-related felonies involving a minor in a plea deal that dropped a string of kidnapping, abduction and rape charges.

Co-defendant Jonathan McNeil, 24, admitted to similar charges, but was already on probation for attempted vehicular assault. That and McNeil's prior theft-related convictions resulted in a harsher penalty, said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose.

Some men told police the two defendants used telephone chat lines to lure them to liaisons with prostitutes, then rifled their wallets.

When an undercover officer visited Hunter's apartment in a sting, a 13-year-old girl solicited sex from him. When police questioned her, she detailed a scheme in which she would lure johns into a back bedroom while the adults ripped them off.

The two defendants claimed they babysat the girl but didn't know she was secretly prostituting herself.

Said Ambrose: "I certainly didn't buy that."