The Story of Abigail Part 7
The jury wholeheartedly agreed, and Kyle was found guilty of sex trafficking Abigail.
Going into Battle
We were most fortunate to locate a wonderful prosecutor who took on the case against Kyle and his cohorts. She was most knowledgeable, and I had trained her years ago during one of the human trafficking task forces that I developed and led previously. We provided her with all the relevant information the team had gathered carefully, and pains takingly catalogued with professionally written statements, as well as a table of contents for the evidence and pertinent data gathered by RJ as well as Abigail’s parents.
Prosecutors have tremendous constraints on their time and resources. It is imperative to provide them with sufficient information so they can efficiently communicate with their supervisors. They need to approach them with necessary information showing justification of resources and time for entering a case. They need to know how long it will take and what the expected outcome is, and why their jurisdiction should investigate. In short, you need to deliver it on a silver platter with a nice bow. All this, just to get the investigation started.
Because the prosecutor was on the task force, she had a background knowledge of what we were showing her, she knew and appreciated the value of our collective skills. Most importantly, she understood that Abigail was not making her life choices freely. Thanks to her task force training, she also completely understood the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and considered coercion as the standard with which to prove trafficking.
Justice Moves Forward
A sequence of wonderful things managed to come together with the right people, at the right moment, at the right time. We had to time this operation perfectly, when we thought Abigail was most likely to be able/willing to leave. This was the trigger point for success. We were rocking Kyle’s apple cart as soon as we had information that he was going through some other personal difficulties, while simultaneously, Abigail was starting to resist him in small acts of defiance. This was due to our continued surveillance and other intel that RJ and his team had discovered.
Unfortunately, as these operations often go, it was not the walk in the park we hoped for. In fact, it turns out that Abigail was angry with her parents when Kyle was finally arrested, and he fueled that anger with calls from jail. Fortunately, the wheels of justice turned with or without Abigail’s support and her parents couldn't take back the evidence they had provided. So even if they wanted to stop the proceedings they could not. Justice was moving forward!
The Family Gathers Together
The next few months were very tense, not just for the parents, but for the rest of the family, Abigail, and hopefully all the bad guys as well. There was a family event that Abigail attended, but she was visibly angry and only spoke a bit with her grandfather. She spent most of her time at the event with a distant aunt that she had befriended to wheedle information from her regarding the trial from her.
I had anticipated and knew that this would happen based on Abigail’s previous behavior. So, through Abigail’s mother, Jenn, we fed the aunt some misinformation that we knew would be passed on to Abigail. It is sad sometimes to have to do that, but it was particularly important to see who is trustworthy and who was not. We also wanted to protect the information that was true, so the prosecutor could have her best chance at a prosecution. A harmless amount of misinformation led Kyle to be a bit overconfident when he went to court.
The Trial
The trial finally came, and were the consequences not so devastating, it could have been a comedy. Abigail testified how the prostitution and other illegal activities had been her idea. She stated that not only had she had come up with these undertakings, but she was also a willing participant. Through her tears she claimed to have so much power over men. She tried to convince the jury, that she was incredibly happy in her “line of work.” She admitted to dozens of crimes that she said she voluntarily committed.
The jury, believing her testimony was another story and fortunately and with the right direction from the judge and the brilliant work of the prosecutor, they did not! Instead, they had a huge amount of compassion for her. Abigail's mom and dad (Jenn and James) sat through every moment of the trial glaring at Kyle. I call it the stare of death. It was a devastating stare of a parent, defending their abused child from a known predator. Kyle demonstrated increasing discomfort from those stares.
Kyle was put on the stand and his sobbing testimony including huge crocodile tears did not move the jury one iota. So, here is this six-foot tall, 230-pound, 35+ year old supposed strong man crying like a baby. He testified as to how this very much younger and lesser experienced young teenage woman forced him in to doing things he did not want to do. The jury did not believe him either, but they had ZERO compassion for him.
The Offence Never Rested
The jury wholeheartedly agreed, and Kyle was found guilty of sex trafficking Abigail. To our dismay while he was found guilty, it was during the initial stages of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and his sentence was noticeably light, it was not justice, but it was enough to open a window of opportunity for Abigail to escape his clutches.
Sadly, Abigail did not return immediately to her family. She would not speak to any of them at the court and would not return anyone’s calls or texts for several months later.
However, the conviction planted the seeds of freedom in the traumatized and brainwashed mind of Abigail. They just needed sufficient time to grow. She began to learn that things she thought were true, were not. Her admitting to crimes and not being arrested confused her. We are not sure where she went next. She probably was exploited by some of his friends for a little while longer. RJ found a citation regarding a strip club and some evidence of pornography that was live streamed. However, he also found that she did file for divorce from Kyle while he was in prison.
It took about nine or 10 months but one day, unannounced, Abigail walked into her parents’ house hugged her mother and never discussed what happened. It took some more time for the family to heal and to understand that Abigail was home to stay and was not leaving again.
Today, over 8 years later, the whole family is reunited. They are full of love and Abigail has resumed her professional training and now has a career. I passionately believe the trafficking disrupted her development as an adult by 15 to 20 years. Some of the damage may never be repaired but certainly she's up to two decades behind where she would have been, had she not accidentally bumped into this monster. As for him, he was released from prison early, because the state he was prosecuted in considered pimps to be nonviolent offenders.
That state has since changed its law and no longer considers them nonviolent. It makes me so angry to think that in the 2000s even after 2010 that the legislation has still not caught up with the heinousness of this crime. The traffickers are frequently released well before their victims recover. We must strive to change this!
The most important thing is that Abigail was freed from her servitude and life of degradation, humiliation, and pain.
Editor’s Note: Abigail and Kyle never knew Dottie existed- even to this day. Dottie’s role was transparent and well behind the scenes, comforting and staying in touch with Jenn and James (the parents) directing the action of RJ the investigator and his staff, as well as the prosecution team. Jenn has stayed in touch with Dottie and updates her on how Abigail is doing. She even sent a bouquet of flowers. This has gone on for 12 years.
Commercial Sex Is Barbaric
Our language regarding prostitution, stripping and pornography is especially important both as citizens and for those who are in authority. We must correct it, at every opportunity, that commercial sex is barbaric. We must emphasize that buying sex is rape because the money acts as coercion. Without money, that person would not be engaging in sex with the buyer. Whether it's stripping, pornography, or prostitution- this must end! Abigail was used for all those things and even more types of exploitation that I cannot go into now. She was a walking ATM machine for the bad guys.
We must explain to others that it's the consumers of pornography, stripping and prostitution that are the true cause of the decades of loss, trauma and the pain suffered by others like Abigail. The destruction of her family, as they tried to save her, the enormous expenses they incurred, and the loss of the victim’s professional potential needs to be made known. I don't know what dollar amount we could put on that, but it would be larger than I can imagine, and it's still could not be enough to justify commercial sex being allowed to occur in our society.
It is up to us to no longer tolerate commercial sex. We are groomed and manipulated every day for entertainment, music, books, and other ways. Stripping, pornography, and prostitution are considered normal or that the victims are willing, however they are practices of modern slavery. Buying someone for sex is slavery. It is up to us to no longer allow it! The next time you want to speak up and you are a little bit shy, please think about these stories because there are real people behind them. Please every time you can advocate for them. Change the language in society and your community to be hostile to commercial sex and safe for victims. If we all do that, then maybe the buyers will stop doing what they do, and the traffickers will no longer be needed.
I look forward to a day when we reflect and see that allowing commercial sex was barbaric just like slavery was barbaric in the 17 and 1800s. I look forward to a day when our society is rid of this horrible, barbaric practice and that we won't ever allow it to flourish again. People have told me that it's not possible that prostitution is the oldest profession. I disagree. Personally, I believe that tool making not sex slavery is the world’s oldest profession.
I refuse to believe that we cannot make changes in our culture and our society. We can choose what we accept and what we don't. Our approval is fought for every day, in many ways. Whether it's advertising, politics, pollsters or talking heads, they all want our approval. They all want us to follow them and their messages, so we do have value! We are absolutely what makes change happen or not! So, remember every chance you get, you can be the power, you can be the advocate. You can be the change you want to see! Until next time, please celebrate that Abigail is free!
Final Point
Abigail’s story demonstrates how including private investigators as a part of human trafficking rescue is important to getting law enforcement investigations initiated and to allow us to make decisions about when to approach the victim for rescue. Please read this link about a study regarding the utilization of Private Investigators to combat Human Trafficking (scroll down to the bottom of the page). I participated in Dr. Hounmenou’s study about 3 years ago. He is from the University of Illinois @Chicago. He has done some innovative research and I am honored to be quoted on page 6. I first suggested adding Private Investigators to the Human Trafficking task force in 2005, but the non-profit I worked for would not consider it. I am glad to see it documented that collaborating with Private investigators in a method that works.
I believe this research will bring some positive changes.