'It is happening here': Charlevoix Zonta hosts movie, panel on human trafficking

CHARLEVOIX — Charlevoix’s Zonta Club pushed the issue of human trafficking to the forefront of the city’s collective mind on Wednesday, Feb. 21 with an event at the Charlevoix Cinema.

With a screening of the Michigan-made movie “Ring of Silence” and a discussion afterwards involving a panel of experts, the organization — whose purpose is advocating for women’s and girls’ rights — facilitated a community conversation about an important issue that “no one wants to discuss or that no one wants to believe can happen in his or her neighborhood."

“This is happening everywhere and the more people that understand and recognize that, the quicker we can try to help those who may be in such a situation or to eradicate it altogether,” said Maura Snabes, Charlevoix Foundation President and Ring of Silence Chair, who hosted the panel conversation after the movie.

The movie was uncomfortable to watch, but organizers said that was its purpose. The ending scene shows a closed door, behind which a child sits playing with stuffed animals and a man who has paid to spend 30 minutes alone in the room with her.

The panel discussion afterwards was candid.

The audience of 85 people wondered how often this abuse occurs in Charlevoix.

“It is happening here,” said Detective Cody Wheat with the Charlevoix County Sheriff’s Office.

The Charlevoix County Sheriff’s Office has led three sting operations resulting in the arrest and prosecution of eight men within the past year. Many of the incidents involved the suspects communicating online with officers posing as underage teenagers and then arranging to meet in person.

“We had a victim and a suspect who was very similar to this (the people portrayed in the film). He was making the victim have sex with multiple people and then he would videotape it,” Wheat said.

This month, Charlevoix County Sheriff Chuck Vondra said he arrested a man attempting to “have sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old boy."

“Yesterday, there were over 43 people talking to us,” said Vondra, describing how quickly numerous predators rise to their online bait when law enforcement officers pose as 15-year-old girls in chat rooms.

The panelists agreed overwhelmingly that the internet, both phones and computers, was a main way for predators to gain greater access to their victims.

“How does someone get lured into the trafficking ring?” Snabes asked the panel.

Drug use was cited as the tip of the iceberg. One of the panelists described a father who sold his daughter to fuel his drug habit. Threatening coercion by an individual close to the young person, most often not a stranger, was another reason.

Angela Dudley, GHOST Victim Advocate and co-chair of the Genesee County Human Trafficking Task Force, emphasized that it’s often people the child knows who are the most dangerous.

“Human trafficking is no longer about ‘stranger danger.’ It is in your home, it is in your community, it is in your backyard," she said. "All five of my adopted children were human trafficked by their own parents. It’s not like the Liam Neeson movie 'Taken' where the girl is whipped out from underneath the bed. They get into it because they are groomed into it by their own family."

Dudley has assisted in 126 human trafficking victim rescues.

“When you have a family that creates vulnerable children it is very easy to pick out those kids. If it’s the way they were brought up, it is all they know,” she said.

FBI Agent Garrett Croon added that “Almost always the offender is somebody the kid knows."

"It’s a family member, it’s a friend, something like that,” he said.

Croon said, in many situations, other people in the house realize the child is being assaulted and do nothing or rationalize the severity of the situation out of a sense of loyalty to another family member. He said education about trafficking has to impact not only the victims but the people in the houses that may be seeing evidence of the violence.

Sextortion is another way that people get involved, said Michigan State Police Trooper Corey Hebner, describing an incident where a 16-year-old shared some "not-so-nice selfies" with the wrong person.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten has described sextortion as "a type of blackmail where the perpetrator demands money or sexual favors from an individual by threatening to reveal evidence of their sexual activity."

In 2023, three Nigerian nationals were charged with operating an international sextortion ring that led to the death of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay of Marquette.

The panelists discussed the fear that many victims have about coming forward.

“It is really important to believe people,” said psychologist Elizabeth Simpson, who added that perpetrators can “often be upstanding people within the community.”

“What they have that protects them is it's so difficult for people to imagine and believe the magnitude of the things that are happening,” Simpson said.

More: Three Nigerians charged in international ‘sextortion’ ring following Michigan investigation

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The audience also asked about what signs to look for if they suspect someone is a victim of human trafficking.

“If you feel like something is wrong, don’t feel bad about calling us,” said Vondra.

He said most people don’t like to report issues that they are unsure about, but it is better to be wrong than not do something to help.

“If you see something, say something,” Dudley added.

She recalled a situation where a boy was being trafficked in the parking lot of a Big Boy restaurant.

“Multiple people saw it, but nobody reported it," she said.

People can also get a photograph or a video of something they see to provide to law enforcement as evidence.

“If you get a gut feeling that something is not right, I promise you we are going to check into that," Vondra said. "If you are walking through the Meijer grocery store and see a little kid covered in bruises, don’t take the path of least resistance and say ‘Somebody else will call.’”

According to Vondra, one of more frustrating aspects of hunting for these predators is the relatively short amount of jail time they get once they are convicted.

An example being one of the men recently arrested in Charlevoix County’s sex-sting operation who faced up to seven years in prison, but was only sentenced to 30 days at the county jail.

“It’s insulting to me and I’m not going to dance around that issue,” Vondra said.

If you suspect human trafficking, call 911 or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888 or text INFO to 233733.

— Contact reporter Annie Doyle at (231) 675-0099 or adoyle@charlevoix.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Charlevoix Zonta hosts movie showing, expert panel on human trafficking