The jury convicted Leonard Ray Russell on Sept. 12 after a four-day trial in Denison. Some of the alleged offenses took place at Big Earl’s Key Club, located in the same community.

“This case helped us understand that human trafficking is a much bigger problem in Iowa than most of us realized,” Miller said in a prepared statement. “It can be especially perilous for young people and disadvantaged kids, and it can occur in small towns. The underground nature of human trafficking makes it hard to fight, but the trafficking law is a valuable new tool and we will use it.”

Two Nebraska girls testified at the September trial that they met Russell in Omaha in August 2007, shortly after they had ran away from a juvenile home in Fremont, Neb. Aided by a 19-year-old prostitute named Marcia “Jazzie” Ryan, Russell befriended the girls and provided them with illicit substances.

Prosecutors alleged Russell, who has used addresses in both Sioux City and Omaha, Neb., took the girls to Davenport and Rockford, Ill. and then to Denison over the course of several days. At the locations, Russell was convicted of forcing the girls to engage in prostitution and perform at strip clubs, including Big Earl’s Key Club in Denison.

The girls testified that they didn’t like what they were doing and that they felt ashamed, but that they also believed they had no where to go. According to court testimony, the girls were required to give all money they earned to Russell and Ryan in exchange for food, shelter, transportation and clothing.

After the girls had been with Russell and Ryan for eight days, one of the girls — a 15-year-old — was placed on a bus to Washington, D.C. The girl was told that she was being sent to Russell’s cousin so she could learn to solicit sex. The other girl remained in Denison at the strip club and with Russell and Ryan.

An anonymous tip led law enforcement to the girl who remained in Iowa. The other girl was recovered and protected by law enforcement in Washington, D.C.

At trial local police and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation officers testified that they retraced the steps the girls took and located hotel receipts showing that Russell had rented rooms in the cities described by the girls. Investigators also found online postings that contained pictures of the girls and an offer to provide them as prostitutes.

The Iowa Code, Section 710, made human trafficking a felony if there is a victim under the age of 18. According to the Code, the crime is the participation in a venture to recruit, harbor, transport, supply provisions, or obtain a person for purposes ranging from forced labor to debt bondage to commercial sexual activity.

Russell was convicted on two counts of human trafficking, one count of ongoing criminal conduct and two counts of pandering, all classified as felonies. He was sentenced Monday by Crawford County District Court Judge Edward Jacobson of up to 25 years for the criminal conduct charge, and up to 10 years each on the human trafficking and pandering charges. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

Ryan, Russell’s alleged accomplice, was arrested in September in Omaha on an active warrant. She was earlier charged with the same counts Russell faced in Iowa, pleaded “not guilty,” and her case is pending.

While Russell’s case was the first to be successfully prosecuted under the additions to the 2006 Iowa Code, there was a high-profile federal case on human trafficking tried in Iowa during 2007. Staff from the Cedar Rapids Gazette created a 14-part special report on that case, which involved a Minnesota teen and an eastern Iowa prostitution ring.

“Human trafficking — the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel the labor or services of another person — is a terrible crime,” said Matt M. Dumermuth, U.S. Attorney for the northern district of Iowa. “The criminals prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our society. They often target children and foreign nationals, including illegal immigrants, who think they have no place to turn for help.”

Dummermuth stood with Matt G. Whitaker, U.S. Attorney for the southern district of Iowa, to announce a plan that will impact Johnson, Linn, Black Hawk and Dubuque counties. Initially, posters and brochures will be distributed through the counties in an effort to bring more public attention to the crime. A Web site has also been launched that includes information about human trafficking, resources for victims, contact information for victim service providers and a link for reporting suspected human trafficking cases.

“Although slavery was outlawed in the United States more than 140 years ago, a modern-day form of it still takes place in our country,” said Whitaker. “We need to make sure we do all we can to help reach out to those who are victims of this crime.”

Human Trafficking Cases in Iowa:

• In June of 1999, Igor Voyitenko, a Russian national, was charged with bringing four Russian immigrants to the Quad Cities to work in his contract cleaning business and live in an inadequate apartment. The work was to be done in exchange for their passage to the United States. The case was handled by immigration authorities who deported the four workers back to Russia. Voyitenko was also later deported.
• More recently, Demont Bowie of Wellman kidnapped a 13-year-old girl from Minneapolis. The girl was forced to work in an eastern Iowa prostitution ring run by Bowie’s father. The case was prosecuted as a kidnapping.
• The Iowa Council for International Understanding reports that a Chinese national was brought to Ames by a relative under false promises of work. While in Ames, the young woman was forced to work in a restaurant and abused by physically and sexually. Once her situation was discovered, she fought to remain in the country legally.

Representatives of the Northern Iowa Human Trafficking Response Team (HTRT) and its group of eastern Iowa partners were also available at the afternoon press conference. The HTRT was created last year to deal with human trafficking crimes and consists of representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Internal Revenue Service. Goals of the team are to develop plans for responding to the crime of human trafficking, develop an outreach campaign and provide training to both team members and victim-service partners.

Members of the eastern Iowa partner group are representatives from the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office, Cedar Valley Friends of the Family in Waverly, Dubuque Community Y – Domestic Violence Program, HACAP of Iowa City, the Johnson County Attorney’s Office, Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, St. Luke’s Child Protection Center in Cedar Rapids, Seeds of Hope in Waterloo and Waypoint in Cedar Rapids. The partners are the agencies dedicated to helping provide services to victims of human trafficking and community awareness of such crimes.

Human trafficking was not monitored in the United States until 1994. It wasn’t until June 2006 that Gov. Tom Vilsack signed a law that made Iowa the 14th state to outlaw human trafficking. Today, it is estimated that the crime affects roughly 20,000 people, bringing them into the United States either against their will or under false pretenses. Roughly 1 million individuals are estimated to be trafficked globally — over 70 percent of them female. The U.S. Department of State reports that human trafficking is one of the most profitable criminal activities in the U.S., third only to drug and arms trafficking. An estimated $9.5 billion is generated in annual revenue from all trafficking activities, with at least $4 billion attributed to the worldwide brothel industry.