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Pieper Lewis Update

Iowa anti-trafficking advocates are feeling concern regarding Pieper Lewis’ early departure from a survivor treatment center in Atlanta Georgia. Look back at the June 1st blog post for an article about Pieper Lewis’ disappearance. As you may have read, a warrant for her arrest has been issued by the State of Iowa.

Shared Hope International and the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking have jointly written a letter to the Iowa Department of Corrections Director. We are asking the Iowa Department of Corrections to revoke the arrest warrant and instead request that an Endangered Persons Alert be issued.

Tap here to read the joint letter.

Two People Charged with Human Trafficking in Cedar Rapids, IA

Article courtesy of KCCI/TV News

49-year-old Tana Torres of Cedar Rapids and 34-year-old Jarod Anderson of Hiawatha were both arrested on July 18th on charges related to human trafficking. The arrests stem from an ongoing investigation that involved a young girl who was reported missing in Dubuque and was then located in Cedar Rapids in May 2024.

The young girl was reportedly forced into prostitution by Torres and Anderson. The girl is now at a safe location.

According to a criminal complaint, Torres and Anderson picked up the girl, who is a minor, from Dubuque and took her to a Quality Inn in Cedar Rapids. They gave the girl drugs, including meth, and took sexually explicit photos of her to use for an advertisement for soliciting sex online.

They had multiple men come to the hotel to have sex with the girl against her will in exchange for money. The profits were not shared with the victim. Anderson, who also committed sex acts against the victim’s will, drove her to another man’s residence in Cedar Rapids for sex acts in exchange for money.

Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said in a release, “This is the first Human Trafficking charge involving a minor under this new law to be charged in Linn County.” Torres and Anderson were booked at the Linn County Correctional Center and charged with the following: Tana Torres was charged with Human Trafficking, Sexual Abuse, Second Degree, Conspiracy to Commit a Forcible Felony, and Prostitution. Jarod Anderson was charged with Human Trafficking, Sexual Abuse, 3rd degree, and Conspiracy to Commit a Forcible Felony.

The Linn County Attorney’s Office worked with the Cedar Rapids Police Department throughout the investigation and approved plus proved guidance on the filing of the charges.

Maybanks added, “According to the Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative, there are millions of people worldwide and tens of thousands of people in America that are victims of human trafficking, and more than half of female victims are between the ages of 15 and 17. Runaways are at the highest risk of becoming victims. Because of the underground nature of human trafficking, many of these crimes go unreported. If you see something, report it immediately to law enforcement.”

Dubuque Teen Forced into HT Used Lessons Learned from Movie to Escape

Article courtesy of KCCI/TV News

The mother of a Dubuque teenager who police say was sex trafficked said a movie her family watched helped her daughter escape her traffickers. It’s a crime that seemed like a movie, but police said it was all too real. Last week, Cedar Rapids Police said Tana Torres and Jarod Anderson abducted a young girl in Dubuque, drugged and abused her, and sold her to men from a Cedar Rapids motel room.

The mother said Wednesday was the first time she would be able to see her daughter since she was taken from her Dubuque neighborhood in May of this year. The girl was missing for five days before she said she escaped her captors. The mother believed the 2018 movie “Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVay” taught her daughter some valuable lessons.

The Quality Inn in Cedar Rapids was where police said Jarod Anderson and Tana Torres brought a minor from Dubuque. Police said they gave her drugs including methamphetamine, took explicit pictures of her, and sold the teen for sex. “My daughter was gone for five days,” said the mother of the Dubuque teenager who police said was sold for prostitution two months ago.

She said after five days, her daughter was able to escape, learning what to do after watching the movie “Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVay”. “I thought it was insightful and really helpful, and it was all this girl did too, and I had my daughters watch it,” she said.

The movie follows the true story of 17-year-old Lisa McVay, who was abducted by serial killer Bobby Joe Long. In the film, Lisa is seen leaving behind evidence of her abduction, items with DNA on them that could give police valuable leads. The teen’s mom said it was something her daughter was able to do while trying to escape.

“She was smart enough to do the fingerprint thing, she was smart enough to be able to hide a phone, there’s just a lot of things that she took from that movie,” said the mother.

Those with Riverview Center, a nonprofit that helps people who have been sexually abused, said the movie gives people an inside look at what an abduction looks like, but they said what this young girl did wasn’t easy.

“It would be very difficult to be that levelheaded,” said Melody Kosobucki, the Program Director. She said it was good to pause and think how you might respond if you were in a similar situation. “There wasn’t one right way to do it,” said Kosobucki. “You have to determine what’s the best in the situation and what’s best for you too.” The police investigation continues, but this mother wants other people to know what the movie has done for her daughter and her family. “There’s just a lot of things that she took from that movie that she used it,” said the teenager’s mother. “She used it, it helped her, it saved her.”

National Trafficking Hotline Under Attack

As many of you are aware, the National Human Trafficking Hotline frequently puts the caller on hold while they deal with other callers. There has been a 40% increase since Covid in the volume of trafficking hotline calls. Also, Attorney Generals in 35 states, including Iowa, signed a complaint to Congress that they were not getting enough law enforcement tips from the national hotline. The hotline is funded by Congress and is awarded to a non-profit organization called Polaris. The contract for the national hotline is currently being debated. Polaris has a policy that they do not refer tips to law enforcement without the permission of the caller.

The Network has signed a petition to endorse a 40% increase in funding for Polaris and supports its approach to confidentiality and maintaining its survivor-centered approach. To read the hotline allocation increase advocacy letter, click here.

A State-Funded Trafficking Hotline vs National Hotline

Florida is one of the first states in the country to develop its own human trafficking hotline, mandated by a new state law. The Iowa Department of Public Safety is currently considering doing the same as Florida. This happened after a bipartisan group of 35 attorneys general asked Congress to look into the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Their complaint is that the national hotline doesn’t report enough of its cases to law enforcement.

“The only way to stop trafficking is to take the head off the snake and put traffickers behind bars,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.

That’s Moody describing her discovery that Catherine Chen, the CEO of Polaris, a nonprofit that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline, had said, “We can’t arrest our way out of this problem.”

“And so, when I heard that as the attorney general, first and foremost, I met with that leader and demanded to know why tips were being delayed to law enforcement, why tips weren’t being given directly to our law enforcement,” said Moody. “And they said they were more focused on victim-centered approaches than they were on putting criminals behind bars.”

Chen, who has been CEO of Polaris since 2020, says human trafficking is too big for a single approach to work. What’s more, she says, it’s not a question of a trafficked person being kidnapped and then rescued – it’s far more complex than that.

Chen says the national hotline reports about 30 percent of its calls to law enforcement. Those include all cases involving the abuse, neglect or trafficking of a minor, which are reported to child welfare as well as to law enforcement. Other cases involve violence or the imminent threat of harm or death…if an adult victim of trafficking asks them to call…or if an adult victim asks someone else to call for them. Chen says the other 70 percent of their calls are from people who don’t want law enforcement involved.

To read more tap here.

2024 TIP Report on Anti-Slavery Efforts in 188 Countries

The annual US State Department Report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is now available by going to the State Department website and looking under the 2024 TIP Report. The 188-country report is nearly 700 pages, but this year’s report is much easier to navigate by putting the country’s name in their search bar.

The State Department Annual TIP Report provides the world’s most comprehensive assessment of Human Trafficking/Modern Slavery (HT/MS). Even though the TIP covers longstanding assessment methods, the 2024 report now also examines the growing role of technology in both facilitating exploitation and countering it.

Digital tools have amplified the reach, scale, and speed of trafficking. Traffickers use dating apps and online apps to recruit victims. They use online platforms to sell illicit sexual content. They know how to evade detection on the internet and frequently lie about who they are and their age. As technology makes it easier for traffickers to operate between locations and states, we must all remember that none of us can do it alone and it takes a coordinated global effort to fight HT/MS.

New Iowa Human Trafficking Penalty Law Took Effect July 1st

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced on July 2nd that a law she supported to combat human trafficking officially took effect on July 1st. The law heightens penalties for human traffickers.

“Human trafficking is a heinous crime that can happen anywhere, including in our own backyard,” said Attorney General Bird. “We need to call it like it is: modern-day slavery. With this law, traffickers will serve mandatory prison time, and victims will have strong support through the criminal justice system. I thank the legislature and Governor Kim Reynolds for turning our bill into law. As Attorney General, I promise to continue working to combat human trafficking and protect victims.”

The new law will do the following:

  • Require human traffickers convicted of level “B” felonies to serve a mandatory minimum of 50% to 70% of their sentence without parole.
  • Provide victims of human trafficking access to an advocate for support during criminal proceedings.
  • Provide court-appointed counsel during criminal cases for witnesses with a mental disability.

For more details, read HF 2460 here.

SHIELD Act Passes US Senate

The SHIELD Act passed in the US Senate on July 10th. This federal bill combatting image-sexual abuse has finally cleared the first of two Legislative hurdles.

The SHIELD Act addresses image-based sexual abuse in the following ways:

  • Establishes a criminal offense to knowingly distribute, or threaten to distribute sexually explicit content of an individual without their consent.
  • Establishes a criminal offense for distributing a visual depiction of a nude minor with the intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, or degrade the minor, or to arouse any person.
  • Subjects a violator to a fine, prison term of five years, or both.

The next step is for the SHIELD Act to be considered by the US House!

ACTION: Ask the Iowa Congressional Delegation to Support the SHIELD Act and other Image-based Sexual Abuse Legislation

Useful Tips for Concerned Citizens Who May Observe Human Trafficking

Submitted by Melody Stone, Ambassador for Shared Hope International

The attached PDF contains some useful information for law enforcement dispatch units AND concerned Iowans who may observe possible human trafficking situations. A word of caution for citizens is to never insert yourself into a potentially dangerous situation and avoid being an obvious spectator. You can however observe details including license plate numbers, descriptions of people, conversations, activities, and vehicle information that will be helpful to law enforcement.

It’s important to have hotline numbers and resource information saved and readily accessible on your phone. You may have a moment to safely intervene, speaking softly to a victim. A good question might be “Are you feeling safe, do you need help?” It is essential that you remain calm and avoid doing or saying anything that would place a victim in further danger!

Click here to read the information for LE dispatch units and concerned citizens.

Wisconsin Passes New Laws Designed to Combat Human Trafficking

Article courtesy of Scott Bauer from The Associated Press

Wisconsin Governor Evers recently signed a package of bills that were proposed by a Wisconsin legislative task force that studied human trafficking.

One law creates a human trafficking council starting in July 2025 at the Wisconsin Department of Justice. It is charged with collecting and maintaining information and data about human trafficking, developing model training, and creating a state strategic plan to prevent human trafficking.

Another bill Evers signed requires training in identifying and preventing human trafficking for employees who are likely to have contact with the public and vulnerable people. That includes private security officers, public transit managers, hotel and motel owners, and those who own and manage strip clubs.

Expanding training to identify human trafficking “will be a critical tool in our efforts to intervene and prevent human trafficking crimes,” Evers said in a statement.

Evers also signed into a law measure that makes $10 million available in grants for services that support crime victims, including sexual assault, domestic violence, and trafficking survivors. Another bipartisan bill Evers signed will ensure full staffing of an office that assists schools with addressing safety concerns. The new law would use state money to replace federal pandemic relief funds to fund about 14 positions in the state Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety for nine months.

Other bills Evers signed will create a new crime for possessing child sexual abuse material created with Artificial Intelligence technology and create a new crime for possessing sex dolls intended to resemble minors.

 TV News Clips & Articles

By on August 1, 2024   /   News