Connecticut Archives - News - U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking

Lawmakers Tackle Human Trafficking with Several Bills

Feb 1, 2021 | Awareness, Connecticut, News, Politics, Sex Trafficking, Sexual Exploitation, USIAHT

Legislators are taking aim at human trafficking this session with proposed laws that would help victims by making it easier to erase an arrest record and by requiring hotels and motels to stop offering hourly rates. HB 5557 proposed by Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, who heads the state’s Trafficking in Persons Council, would make it easier for victims to have a conviction erased if their crime is related to victimization due to human trafficking.

After Hearst probe, state to combat human trafficking

Feb 20, 2020 | Awareness, Connecticut

In Connecticut legislators and advocates want ways to combat human trafficking. They want increased prevention efforts and services to support women and children who are at a higher risk to exploitation. The meeting that legislators had this week want to expand Connecticut’s definition of sex trafficking. They also want victims not to be charged with trafficking if their trafficker made them recruit other kids.

OP-EDS OPINION Decriminalize victims of human trafficking

Jan 22, 2020 | Awareness, Connecticut, News

Girls can be as young as 12 when their “boyfriends” lure them into a life of sex trafficking. Traffickers ply their victims with drugs to encourage addiction, rendering them dependent, compliant and numbed. They force their victims to sell themselves many times a day. And victims’ troubles do not end there.

Bristol Man Charged With Human Trafficking

Nov 20, 2019 | Awareness, Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

Guy Fletcher, 35, of Bristol, CT, has been charged with human trafficking and promoting prostitution after a woman accused him of acting as her pimp and withholding money and property from her to keep her in his control.

Police: Ellington man, owner of ‘sex dungeon’ arrested again in human trafficking investigation

Nov 11, 2019 | Awareness, Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

Simon Hessler, 47, of Ellington, CT, has been charged with four counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and four counts of risk of injury to a child. Hessler was previously arrested last year after seeking out girls between the ages of 10 and 12 online with the intent to train a young girl in his “slave quarters” and have sex with the girl.

CT man gets prison for sex trafficking of minors, pornography charges

Sep 11, 2019 | Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

Hamlett “recruited and enticed two minor female victims to engage in prostitution at hotels in Hartford and Wethersfield” between August and November 2017 and to “solicit clients for the minors, Hamlett took sexually explicit photographs of each minor and submitted them to the website Backpage,” the release said, citing evidence presented during his trial.

Las Vegas man sentenced to prison for human trafficking in Connecticut

Jul 8, 2019 | Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

Jerome Edison was sentenced Wednesday to only 4 1/2 years in prison for transporting a woman into Connecticut to work as a prostitute. The victim told police that Edison pimps women in other places, but likes Connecticut “because he does not believe the police know what they are doing.” He told her that he has been pimping women since 2006

Leader of Danbury-based sex trafficking ring sentenced to 4½ years in prison

Jun 21, 2019 | Awareness, Connecticut, Perpetrators

Robert King, the leader of a Danbury, CT. targeted vulnerable young men suffering from addiction and mental illness was sentenced Wednesday to only four and a half years in prison. King testified against co-defendant Bruce Bemer in exchange for a sentence of 20 years in prison, suspended after he served four and a half years, and 35 years of probation.

Bemer sentenced for role in Danbury sex ring, agrees to pay settlement to one victim

Jun 18, 2019 | Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

A Glastonbury, CT. millionaire Bruce Bemer will be trading in a life of luxury for at least 10 years in jail for his role in a local sex-trafficking ring. He was arrested and accused of trapping vulnerable young men in a predatory cycle of cocaine addiction, prostitution and threats of death. At least two of the 15 victims had developmental disabilities.

Why Victims Of Human Trafficking Often Don’t Speak Out

May 13, 2019 | Awareness, Connecticut, News

But those men shared one commonality with the stereotypical trafficking victim, according to Krishna Patel, former deputy chief of the National Security and Major Crimes Unit in the District of Connecticut. Vulnerability is at the root of it,” Patel explained.

Man pleads guilty to human trafficking, faces 4 1/2 years in prison

Apr 30, 2019 | Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

Jerome Edison, 49, pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Hartford to a single count of human trafficking. Under his plea agreement, he’ll be sentenced to 10 years in prison, suspended after he serves 4 1/2 years, and five years of probation.

Newington’s Rotary Club is aiming to help human trafficking victims in Connecticut

Apr 11, 2019 | Awareness, Connecticut

At Wednesday’s Newington Rotary Club meeting, members lined up around a table and filled dozens of brown paper bags with personal hygiene items, snacks and Gatorade, to be distributed to victims of human trafficking working on the streets of Hartford.

Human trafficking to be addressed in program at Tolland Middle School

Mar 20, 2019 | Awareness, Connecticut, News

“The more light that shines on this modern-day form of slavery, the more children can be protected and the more hope for recovery for those who survive,” said Veronica Trudel,.

CT law brings more arrests, awareness of human trafficking

Jan 15, 2019 | Awareness, Connecticut

A state law passed in 2016 to combat human trafficking has resulted in more arrests while raising local awareness of the often-invisible crime, which has been called modern-day slavery, experts say. Trafficking is one of the biggest challenges faced by law enforcement, and one that especially benefits from public awareness, said Krishna Patel, who worked with the U.S. attorney’s office for Connecticut on trafficking cases.

Man sentenced to 15 years for sex trafficking minors

Jan 7, 2019 | Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

A Hartford.CT. man convicted of trafficking minors for sex has been sentenced to serve 15 years in prison. Plus, as many as 50 people worked as prostitutes for him.

Self-professed ‘slave trainer’ accused of child prostitution and trafficking appears in court, wife files for divorce

Dec 14, 2018 | Awareness, Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

Simon Hessler appeared Wednesday in Manchester Superior Court, where his case was transferred to Hartford Superior Court, which handles more serious matters. Charged last month with attempting to set up two days of “limitless sex” with a person he thought was a 10- to 12-year-old girl, Hessler was held on bail of $1 million for a court appearance set for Dec, 27.

Case Reveals Shame, Trauma of Male Sex Trafficking Victims

Nov 16, 2018 | Connecticut, News, Survivors

Like many victims of a Connecticut sex trafficking ring that preyed on troubled young men and teenage boys for more than 20 years, Samuel Marino never told his family or police about being coerced into sexual relations with much older men.

Hotel Owner Arrested on Sex Trafficking Charges Had ‘Sex Dungeon’

Nov 15, 2018 | Awareness, Connecticut, News

An Ellington man and Manchester hotel owner arrested on attempted sex trafficking charges allegedly had a “sex dungeon” on one of his properties, according to Connecticut State Police. Simon Hessler, 46, was arrested Tuesday after an undercover investigation into underage human sex trafficking.

Milton man pleads guilty to sex trafficking

Sep 26, 2018 | Connecticut, News, Perpetrators

A Milton man accused of trafficking women for sex in four states has pleaded guilty in federal court. Duhamel Cassagnol, 30, is due to be sentenced Dec. 18 on charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion; engaging in a conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; and transporting an individual for prostitution in federal court in Boston.