Berks is fourth in Pa. in human-trafficking cases – Reading Eagle

Berks, Montgomery and Chester counties were among the counties in Pennsylvania with the highest number of human-trafficking offenses during the most recent five-year period for which those statistics are available.

There were 116 human trafficking-related offenses filed in Montgomery County Court between 2017 and 2021, representing about 11% of the statewide total and second only to Lancaster County, which had 24% of the filings, according to data compiled by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

During the same five-year period, Berks authorities filed charges for 106 human trafficking-related offenses, representing 9.67% of the statewide total, to rank fourth, while Chester County ranked fifth with 69, or 6.3% of the statewide total, according to the AOPC data.

From January 2017 through December 2021, there were 259 human-trafficking cases involving a total of 1,096 human trafficking-related offenses filed statewide, the AOPC said in a special report, “Human Trafficking in Pennsylvania.”

The charges included involuntary servitude, trafficking in individuals for financial benefit and trafficking of minors.

Lancaster County's 259 filings represented nearly a quarter of the state's human-trafficking offense filings during the five-year period.

Dauphin County, with 110 human trafficking-related offenses filed between 2017 and 2021, representing 10.04% of the statewide total, ranked third in the state.

The remaining top 10 counties with the highest percentage of human trafficking-related offenses filed between 2017 and 2021 were: Philadelphia (5%); Monroe (4%); Delaware (4%); Blair (4%); and York (3%).

AOPC highlights the work of the courts with data and statistics obtained through the judiciary's case management systems, interactive dashboards and other research.

AOPC compiles the data but does not interpret it. The agency released the data in January, which is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

Pennsylvania's Act 105, enacted in late 2014, expanded the state's legal definition of human trafficking to include sex trafficking as well as labor trafficking.

As defined in the law, human trafficking is a type of human rights abuse in which people profit from the exploitation of others, mainly through the use of force, fraud or coercion to manipulate victims into engaging in sex acts or labor/services in exchange for something of value.

Specific offenses that fall under the human trafficking law include trafficking in minors, trafficking in individuals for financial benefit, and patronizing victims of sexual servitude and involuntary servitude.

According to AOPC data, 78% of those convicted of human trafficking offenses were male and about 41% were between the ages of 30 and 39.

Law enforcement officials in the region have used the law to prosecute several human trafficking-related cases in recent years:

• In September 2017, a 45-year-old Philadelphia man was sentenced to 5½ to 11 years in prison for running a human trafficking ring. That used fear and violence to force seven drug-addicted women into sexual slavery in Montgomery, Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia counties.
• In  August 2019 a 27-year-old Philadelphia man was sentenced to 6 to 20 years in prison for arranging and advertising a sex-for-cash scheme that relied on a teenage girl who had met men for sex in a motel in Upper Merion Township.
• In January 2020, federal prosecutors charged 14 members of a gang that used violence including shooting, raping and beating their victims to force women including a juvenile into sexual slavery. The charges followed a raid by Reading police. U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced last week that Karvarise Person, 33, received a life sentence plus 10 years after being convicted on trafficking of a minor, kidnapping and racketeering charges, while three other convicted leaders were sentenced to decades in prison.
• In 2021, a state grand jury indicted three Reading men on human-trafficking-related offenses as a result of an investigation conducted by the attorney general's office and state police. Prosecutors said the men used promises of drugs and money and threats of violence to coerce a vulnerable young woman into prostitution. One of the men, Hector Rivera, 52, was found guilty of the charges in a trial last week in Berks County Court while the other two are being held awaiting trial.
• In September 2022, three men — one from Berks, one from Chester and one from Lancaster — were charged with statutory sexual assault, prostitution and related charges as a result of an undercover investigation by the Berks County District Attorney's Human Trafficking Task force. Prosecutors said the men attempted to arrange sexual encounters with individuals they believed were younger than 16 at local motels after responding to ads on websites commonly used for sexual advertisements.

Berks District Attorney John T. Adams said the task force was established in 2019 to combat the problem of sex trafficking.

Besides arresting several perpetrators, Adams said, the task force has led authorities to identify victims of human trafficking.

The task force works with a number of partner organizations within and outside of Berks that render an array of support services to survivors of commercial sexual exploitation, from residential programs that provide therapeutic and spiritual care to to additional services to legal services and advocacy organizations such as Morgantown-based FREE (Freedom and Restoration for Everyone Enslaved).

Adams said the problem exists in metropolitan areas across the country but most people don't realize it's going on in their communities.

“It's also related in many respects to poverty,” he said, explaining that young people from impoverished communities become sex workers as a way to make money, then find themselves trapped.

“We will continue to pound forward to identify the perpetrators and also to help the victims of this insidious problem,” Adams said.

Montgomery County law enforcement officials announced the creation of the Human Trafficking/Child Exploitation Task Force in 2021. It's a partnership between the county detective bureau, five police departments and the Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center.

The task force assists local police departments with the specific goal of identifying, searching for and recovering runaways who are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking.

“Trafficking women and children — forcing them into having sex for money or drugs — is an all-too-frequent crime that happens even though residents may not hear much about it. The most vulnerable population to fall prey to that victimization are children who have run away,” Montgomery District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said at the time.

(Reading Eagle reporter Steven Henshaw contributed to this story.)