Seminar sheds light on sex trafficking

Last weekend, Missoula Detective Guy Baker logged onto the free classifieds site Backpage.com and made a disturbing find. Alongside posts for roommates or jobs, Baker saw personal ads for women from all corners of the state.

“On a Sunday night in Montana in the summer, there were 51 ads,” he said. “Ninety five percent of those were probably sex trafficking or prostitution.”

Baker shared his findings at a sex trafficking awareness seminar in the Polson High School Auditorium Monday night. Organized as a training opportunity for law enforcement, teachers and members of the community, Baker and his fellow speakers described a pervasive industry no longer relegated to big cities or foreign countries.

“Sex trafficking is happening here,” Kalispell Detective Jeanne Parker said. “I think as a society we allow it.”

Parker said an online prostitution sting in the Flathead Valley this spring elicited more than 200 responses and resulted in seven arrests. Perhaps the most troubling aspect, Parker said, was that nobody reported the posts to law enforcement.

Last fall a 22-year-old Polson woman was coerced into an alleged multi-state sex trafficking ring after responding to an online job offer in Missoula. She was rescued 11 days later by law enforcement in Billings, who arrested and charged 34-year-old Terrance Tyrell Edwards in the case. On June 7, Edwards pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to a 10-count indictment alleging that he forcibly trafficked a total of five women, including three minors.

The indictment charges Edwards with transporting women across state lines between Montana and North Dakota for the purpose of prostitution, as well as issuing threats in order to prevent their testimony.

The case mirrors many of the common elements associated with sex trafficking.

Grace Manchala, a Kalispell sociologist who organized the seminar, said that traffickers or pimps often appear charming before resorting to threats and violence once women are under their control.

Parker said that these predators have increased access to potential victims through the internet and social media.

She said “sexting,” or sending explicit messages, photographs and videos by cell phones, has become a common practice among teenagers. While they might appear as private interactions, Parker said they can easily be spread online. Parker said she arrested one man who had more than 600 videos of teenage girls sexting with their boyfriends.

“Their trading them like trading cards,” Parker said.

Parker encouraged parents to teach their children safe practices and establish “cell phone free” zones at home.

“Why as parents do we allow them to have phones in their bedroom at night?” she asked. “There’s never a response that can’t wait until morning.”

Manchala urged the audience to recognize abuse as a driving factor behind many victims of sex trafficking. She said children with a history of abuse often have a hard time connecting with the community and are easily enticed by the first person that appears to show them love.

“Society looks on them with a stigma,” She said. “We need to change that.”

While Montana has recently made great strides on the issue, passing legislation in 2010 that classified women under 16 involved in prostitution as victims rather than criminals, Manchala said promoting awareness remains a challenge. She said seminars like the one in Polson serve as a first step in spreading the message among communities.

“That’s why you’re here tonight,” she said. “Not to be silent.”