The WATCH Chronicle – November 2016 1
The WATCH Chronicle
WATCH 612-341-2747
The WATCH Chronicle – November 2016 1
WATCH 612-341-2747
The WATCH Chronicle – November 2016 1
Noelle Volin of MNCASA: Fighting for systemic change
By Pamela Schmid
Noelle Volin wanted to be an FBI agent when she entered law school. Her plans changed just before graduating, when she volunteered with a non-profit that works with victims of sexual exploitation.
“I realized I am not cut out for law enforcement,” she said. Instead, Volin turned her sights to advocating. As the staff attorney at Breaking Free, she sought systemic change in the courts as well as the Legislature, lobbying for passage and funding of Minnesota’s Safe Harbor law.
Since 2015, Volin has worked as a collaboration specialist at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute, an initiative of Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She also works as a consultant and trainer, helping professionals and communities combat sex trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation.
Volin’s work on systems change is informed by years in the trenches. During her time at Breaking Free, she helped launch the Criminal Justice Advocacy Program after noticing that victims were frequently being criminalized as a direct result of their sexual exploitation. The goal: to help lawyers, police and judges see the link between exploitation and associated crimes, whether that meant talking to a client’s public defender or addressing a judge on the record.
When victims are forging checks to buy gift cards to sell on the streets so they can meet their quota, or are being used to post ads for new recruits, “they’re not thinking about culpability,” Volin said. “They’re thinking, ‘Okay, this is easier; they’ve put their trust in me and I’m not the one who has to go out and have sex with strangers.’”
Volin said she’s proud of Minnesota for takng the lead in providing services and options for trafficking victims.
Noelle Volin is Collaboration Specialist and special projects coordinator for MN Coalition Against Sexual Assault
Inside:
Monitoring spotlight ……. 3
WATCH in the news ……. 4
Trafficking update …….. 5
Thanks to Safe Harbor, which decriminalizedminors who were engaged in prostitution, “our response to clear-cut cases of trafficking and sexual exploitation has significantly improved,” she said. But she added: “As a state, we have to be careful about the narratives we’re using.”
Trainings that focus only on the “obvious” cases—those that include images of “black pimps or of little girls or of victims in bondage”—raise the risk that “there’s going to be a slew of victims we will miss out on,” Volin said.
As for perpetrators, there need to be penalties, she said, as well as an understanding of what led a person to become a trafficker under the law. “Just like violence and exploitation have been normalized for victims, what does it look like for a young man whose family has engaged in this and this is a business model, a career option?” she asked. “It’s not excusing. There needs to be a penalty. It’s something we have to be able to hold and understand.”
Volin said it’s important to go after all perpetrators—“the businessman, the teacher or the assistant county attorney’’—not only ones she said society is more comfortable with.
Combatting trafficking and exploitation also mean focusing on demand. For two years at Breaking Free, she co-facilitated an Offenders Prostitution Program, or “John School,” a diversion program for people arrested for soliciting prostitution. She supports “John stings” that target buyers, but also advocates infilitrating the networks of so-called hobbyists: the more elite clients who post online reviews and seek out other buyers for advice on where to go.
Public exposure, longer jail terms and higher fines can be effective deterrents, Volin said. “But to me, that’s all reactionary. We also need to change attitudes and behavior. How can we look at prevention? That’s something the systems can be involved in, but it’s also something for communities to get involved in.”
Minnesota lawmakers are expectedto consider expanding the Safe Harbor law in 2016, including decriminalizing prostitution and sexual exploitation beyond the age of 18. Such a move, known as the Nordic model, would be groundbreaking, and Volin said she hopes lawmakers stay away from simple answers and make an effort to hear from those who would be affected directly before taking any action.
The possible change raises a host of new questions, Volin said, including: “How do you make sure somebody gets help” without the stick of possible arrest?
“I’m not saying let’s just keep talking and thinking about this problem,” she added.“But if you’re doing something this big, we do at least need to talk and think about, what are people who are impacted saying? Then move forward.”
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Noelle Volin of MNCASA
“What does it look like for a young man whose family has engaged in this and this is a business model? It’s not excusing. It’s something we have to be able to hold and understand.”
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The WATCH Chronicle – November 2016 1
COURT MONITORING BULLETIN: Kudos Corner Judge Richard H. Kyle Jr.
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The WATCH Chronicle – November 2016 1
Periodically in these pages, we like to shine the spotlight on judges who earn consistently high praise from our monitors. This month, we’ve selected Ramsey County District Judge Richard H. Kyle Jr. for that distinction.
Judge Kyle, a graduate of William Mitchell College of Law, was an associate attorney with the firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi and ran his own private practice before his appointment to the bench in September 2015.Following his election on Nov. 8, his second term will expire in 2023. His father, Richard H. Kyle, served as a U.S. District Judge in Minnesota from 1992-2005.
Here is a sampling of our monitors’ comments about Judge Kyle:
- “He is very fair and willing to be flexible so defendants can continue school/work and get their lives back together.”
- “He really held the defendants accountable and made them speak on behalf of what they did.
- “He was very clear about the process and answered all questions that were confusing.”
- “Judge Kyle is my hero. He did very specific things to make sure victims were aware of their options. In one case, he called a recess so that the probation officer could call the Domestic Abuse Counselor who interviewed the victim to be sure she wants continued contact. He did similar things in two other cases today as well.”
- “He was very good at asking questions to clarify any conditions. He was very good at making sure defendants knew what was expected.”
- “Everything seemed to run smoothly in Judge Kyle’s court room.” ∞
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Ramsey County District Judge Richard H. Kyle Jr.
“Everything seemed to run smoothly in Judge Kyle’s court room.”
IN THE NEWS
U of M students who interfered in rape case expelled from national fraternity
Officials at the University of Minnesota and in Washington are pledging to change how campus sexual assaults are handled after a University of Minnesota student disclosed her fight for justice against the man who raped her.
In a Nov. 6 article, the Star Tribune reported that Abby Honold, 21, met with University President Eric Kaler as well as Gov. Mark Dayton and Sen. Al Franken after the newspaper ran Honold’s story on Oct. 23. The officials have agreed to work on issues raised by Honold’s case.
In the wake of the Oct. 23 article, a national fraternity kicked out two members from its Uof M chapter after they interfered in a rape investigation against a fellow fraternity member.
U student Daniel Drill-Mellum is serving six years in prison after being convicted of violently raping Honold in his apartment in November 2014. Soon after the rape, two of Drill-Mellum’s brothers from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity put an unsuspecting Honold on speaker phone and recorded themselves as they spoke with her, according to the newspaper. When they asked if she had consensual sex with Drill-Mellum, Honold misunderstood a question and said “yeah.” After the video made its way to Drill-Mellum’s attorneys, the Hennepin County Attorney’s office declined to prosecute.
Read the Oct. 23 Star Tribune article here.
Read the newspaper’s Nov. 6 followup story here.
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Analysis: Hundreds of Minnesotans seek care each year for sexual assaults
In spite of public efforts to combat sexual violence and make it easier for survivors to report incidents, the number of Minnesota rape victims seeking hospital care each year remains high.
About 1,400 men and women sought treatment for sexual violence in 2014, according to Minnesota Department of health researchers. That number has barely changed over the past five years.
Read the Star Tribune report here.
- Which age group saw the largest decline of hospital visits in 2014?
- What share of people who experience sexual assault seek medical care, according to a state study?
Read the report get answers.
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The WATCH Chronicle – November 2016 1
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SEX TRAFFICKING UPDATE:
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The WATCH Chronicle – November 2016 1
Taylor trial set for January
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The WATCH Chronicle – November 2016 1
A January trial is set in Ramsey County District Court for a 44-year-old St. Paul man charged with two counts of second-degree sex trafficking, first-degree promoting the prostitution of a minor and conspiracy to commit second-degree sex trafficking.
According to a criminal complaint, Darryl Taylor posted hundreds of ads on the website Backpage.com, including for a 17-year-old girl and two women, ages 23 and 33, and took the money they received for engaging in sex acts. The 17-year-old victim told officers that for two weeks during the summer of 2015, she had sex with men in exchange for money about ten times for each of three days, receiving around $150 per customer. The teen-age victim said she paid all the money to Taylor’s co-defendant and girlfriend, Laqueshia Danekia-Kay’D Moran, as payment for staying at her house. The 17-year-old also said Taylor and Moran were working together, and that Taylor communicated with men who answered the backpage.com postings.
The 21-year-old told detectives that a drug addiction fueled her relationship with Taylor, whom she had known for about a year. According to the complaint, when Taylor invited her to his house to show her how to make money and provide drugs, she did not realize what she was agreeing to. Taylor allegedly took pictures of her and posted them online and communicated with “Johns” via text, keeping the money the “Johns” paid in exchange for sex while only providing the 23-year-old with drugs.
According to the charging documents, the daughter of the 33-year-old woman reported to police in February that her mother was being trafficked. The woman had been missing since November, which is when Taylor allegedly began running ads for her online.
Both of the older women were physically assaulted by Taylor, according to the complaint. When the 23-year-old woman tried to leave, Taylor allegedly threatened her with a gun and choked her until she passed out. When the older woman declined to have sex for money one night, Taylor allegedly slammed her head repeatedly against the ledge of a window. He was charged with first- and third-degree assault as a result of the incident.
Taylor was arrested April 7 on an outstanding warrant for failing to register as a predatory offender in Ramsey County. Officers later found drugs, drug paraphernalia, a gun and items seen in the backgrounds of the online ads. Moran, 23, is set for a Dec. 5 trial after she was charged in May with first-degree soliciting prostitution of a minor, first-degree promoting the prostitution of a minor and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking in the second degree. Prosecutors have offered a plea deal if she testifies against Taylor at trial, according to monitor observations.
Washington-Davis’s sentence is three years less than the 36-year prison sentence imposed in 2013.
In other news:
The Hennepin County trial of Terri Ann Milstein, accused of heading a prostitution ring, has been postponed after questions were raised over whether the original judge would remain on the case. Chief Judge Ivy S. Bernhardson is set to rule next month on whether Judge William Koch will preside over Milstein’s trial. Judge Koch had nixed a plea deal in May, saying he didn’t believe it was appropriate. Milstein, a former volunteer with the state’s Guardian ad litem program, is charged with two counts of promoting prostitution following a sting at a Plymouth hotel.
A Brooklyn Park man convicted in 2013 of sex trafficking was resentenced on Nov. 1 in Ramsey County District Court to 33 years in prison. Antonio Dion Washington-Davis’s sentence, imposed by Judge Leonardo Castro, is three years less than the 36-year prison sentence imposed by Judge Rosanne Nathanson in 2013 after it was discovered that he had been sentenced incorrectly on one of the six charges he was convicted of, which affected his criminal history score.∞
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Snyder: “We need people who are watching.”
Minneapolis police Sgt. Grant Snyder, who specializes in sex trafficking cases, lauded WATCH’s efforts at a gathering earlier this month, saying it is crucial to have “somebody out there to see what happens.”
Snyder, who has arrested 2,200 men and rescued more than 750 victims over the course of his career, told dozens of WATCH volunteers and supporters that he can work to put traffickers away, but added: “There’s something broken in the process. That’s where WATCH comes in. You have no idea how many times I’ve seen an outcome and shaken my head and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ … We need people who are watching and keeping an eye on it and asking difficult questions. They’re used to seeing me get angry when a trafficker gets probation instead of 20 years.”
WATCH is set to release a report later this month on sex trafficking prosecutions in Hennepin and Ramsey counties. Executive director Amy Walsh Kern says that among other things, the report will recommend changes in procedures, statute language and sentencing outcomes.∞
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