Straub and his boss, Mayor Greg Ballard, acknowledge that the outcry over the Aug. 6 accident and the investigation that followed, along with a scandal surrounding the beating of a 15-year-old boy during an arrest in May, have weakened public confidence in the city’s police. But with internal and FBI reviews incomplete, Ballard says neither Straub nor Police Chief Paul Ciesielski, a 23-year veteran who was appointed in February, are going anywhere.
“We get the facts, what actually happened, and then we can go forward from there,” Ballard said.
The department had already had a string of problems when Ballard plucked Straub from a seven-year stint as police commissioner of White Plains, N.Y., where he worked after serving as deputy commissioner of training for the New York Police Department in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In the last two years, officers had been accused of trafficking drugs, arson, running a prostitution ring and taking bribes.
See the full article from “WANE”
The victim, who was not identified in court documents that provided detail about her time in captivity, said she and two or three other females were held hostage. One of the accused, Chris Smiley, 27, Indianapolis, referred to the victims as “Team Smiley,” and advertised their services on Craig’s List and LiveLinks.
The unidentified victim told police she was taken hostage around March 1, and held about three weeks and forced into prostitution because her parents owed Smiley about $500 for crack cocaine.
Smiley first made the victim work as a stripper at the Wild Cheri, a strip club in Speedway, and he collected the money she made after each dance. But the club told the woman she couldn’t work there anymore when she showed up with a black eye that Smiley gave her.
See the full article from “Indianapolis Star”
Straub and his boss, Mayor Greg Ballard, acknowledge that the outcry over the Aug. 6 accident and the investigation that followed, along with a scandal surrounding the beating of a 15-year-old boy during an arrest in May, have weakened public confidence in the city’s police. But with internal and FBI reviews incomplete, Ballard says neither Straub nor Police Chief Paul Ciesielski, a 23-year veteran who was appointed in February, are going anywhere.
“We get the facts, what actually happened, and then we can go forward from there,” Ballard said.
The department had already had a string of problems when Ballard plucked Straub from a seven-year stint as police commissioner of White Plains, N.Y., where he worked after serving as deputy commissioner of training for the New York Police Department in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In the last two years, officers had been accused of trafficking drugs, arson, running a prostitution ring and taking bribes.
See the full article from “WANE”
Gary Lewis, the East Asia and Pacific representative from the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, says that although the number of reports has risen, the lack of data makes it difficult to measure the true extent of the problem.
“If we don’t know that outcomes are resulting, if we don’t know, for example, that there are fewer women being arrested for soliciting who have been victims, if we don’t know that there are a greater number of brothel keepers and kingpins who are being arrested, prosecuted and convicted for these crimes, we won’t know that our actions are leading to anything conclusive or useful at all,” said Lewis. “So we need baseline data not only to see if the problem is growing, but we need it to see if our actions are actually having a proper impact.”
See the full article from “Voice of America”
Police: Woman Held Hostage, Forced Into Prostitution
2 Charged With Human Trafficking
POSTED: 5:06 pm EDT September 2, 2010
UPDATED: 6:54 pm EDT September 2, 2010
INDIANAPOLIS — A 19-year-old Indianapolis woman told police she was held against her will, beaten and forced into prostitution to pay off the drug debt of her mother’s boyfriend.
Chris Smiley, 27, and Ayannah Wills, 26, were charged with human trafficking, battery and promoting prostitution, while Latoya Harlin, 21, was charged with battery, promoting prostitution and criminal confinement, 6News’ Renee Jameson reported.
The woman told police she was taken hostage in February, when she was 18 years old, and forced to strip at a west side show club after her mother’s boyfriend did not pay Smiley for crack cocaine.
She said a few days later, when the club’s manager wouldn’t let her dance because she had a black eye, Willis threatened to kill her and rape her with a knife, police said.
See the full article from “WRTV Indianapolis”
Police: Human trafficking case is rare in Indianapolis
18-year-old woman was abducted to pay off man’s drug debt, forced into prostitution, IMPD says
See the full article from “Indianapolis Star”
Two days later, Zimmerman wrote the judge a letter asking to withdraw his plea, saying he didn’t use force with either of his accusers. Frye held a hearing on the request June 24, 2009, and denied the motion.
About two months later, the judge sentenced Zimmerman to 20 years in prison, fined him $35,000 and labeled him a sex offender.
But the appeals court said that Zimmerman “presented a reasonable and legitimate basis supporting the withdrawal… such that the trial court unfairly and unjustly” denied the request.
According to the appeals judges, Zimmerman’s attorney “admitted to pressuring and coercing defendant into taking the plea” and testified “he regretted entering the plea and believed that the case should have been taken to trial.”
Zimmerman told police that he had trolled the West Side for prostitutes since 2001 and had sex with more than 800 of them.
See the full article from “Columbus Dispatch”
School And Strip Clubs, Ctd
31 Aug 2010 05:17 pm
by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
I returned to Indiana University in Bloomington to take an oral exam to fulfill my single remaining course, “Historical Interpretation of Baroque Music”. The exam went swimmingly, and I had a day to kill before driving back up to Indianapolis to catch my flight home. I’d already eaten at my favorite restaurants, visited my local friends, and decided to catch a strip show at a small club on the outskirts of town.
There must have been a school break, because I was the only customer in the place. The strippers fawned over me, trying to coax a night’s worth of dollars out of a single fellow in the room. It was enjoyable, and expensive. The second gal that decided to keep me company asked what I was doing in town. I said I’d just made up the last credits to get my degree. “In what?” “Voice performance”. Well, she had taken some classes at the Early Music Institute, and thought about switching from violin to baroque violin, but couldn’t afford it. Did I know such-n-such professor? Yup, I did.
See the full article from “The Atlantic (blog)”
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Human trafficking, drug dealing and prostitution are all part of a five-month-long investigation by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Undercover Metro detectives say a grand jury has indicted three people for felony charges after they learned a woman was being held against her will and used for sex.
24-Hour News 8 spoke with undercover Vice detective Laura Smith who says the initial police run was for an alleged rape but what officers found in a couple of rooms at the Motel 6 on Indianapolis’ east side was evidence of prostitution. That investigation turned into a Human Trafficking investigation.
…
The victim told police that night Willis threatened to “rape her with the knife.” The victim says that’s when Willis told her she would have to prostitute herself to pay off her parents’ drug debt: she “would perform sexual acts and sexual intercourse with several men a day from ads” on “Craig’s list” and “live links” phone line.
See the full article from “WISH”
Updated: Friday, 20 Aug 2010, 3:41 PM EDTPublished : Friday, 20 Aug 2010, 11:05 AM EDT
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – A spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Corrections said it was a miscommunication between two local mental health facilities that resulted in the slow reporting of an escaped parolee who is now wanted for allegedly stabbing an Indianapolis man to death in Walker on Wednesday.
Jack Jacqmain is sought for the stabbing death of Mark Moore, a 31-year-old Indianapolis man, at the Motel 6 on 3 Mile. Jacqmain, 52, is thought to be armed and dangerous.
Surveillance photos of Jacqmain from Wednesday night were released by authorities on Friday.
Investigators said Jacqmain is a smoker who prefers Swisher Sweets and he often wears sunglasses. He is familiar with the trucking business and he likes prostitutes.
See the full article from “WISH”