Indiana’s First Human Trafficking Conviction

February 2, 2011 – 8:40 AM

On January 25, 2011 Indianapolis and the state of Indiana got it’s first human trafficking conviction. The guilty is a man named Chris Smiley who had young girls selling drugs and prostituting for his gain. The group of girls were known as “Smiley’s Girls”. A few were not forced into this but were participating for drugs and money . One of the victim’s mom owed a drug debt so the girl was basically kidnapped and forced into prostitution. The victim also was forced to dance at a pit of a topless bar here in Indianapolis.

While she was dancing, she would have another female watching her so she couldn’t keep the money or leave. Ultimately, the police get a call to a local hotel where the girls were prostituting and find the girls. The victim was hiding in the bathroom.

This and most human trafficking cases are extremely complicated. The detective has to follow every lead even after they have the facts and enough information to make an arrest. It is a long, complicated and almost always frustrating. The detective Laura Spicer of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Vice Unit stuck with it and never gave up.

The defendant that was found guilty, is supposed to be sentenced today. The weather here is terrible so right now it’s unsure whether that will happen or not.

On another note about human trafficking, it appears the Indiana law may not be changed this year. Last word was it got lost in the shuffle. It may be added as an amendment to another bill. I will keep everybody updated on this. Very frustrating waiting for this to happen.

The current Indiana law states that a juvenile has to be forced or coerced into prostitution or any other type of servitude in order for the adult that is doing the pimping to be charged with human trafficking. The federal law already covers this and is a good law. Our state human trafficking law needs to be fixed to protect our children.

If this law were a child pornography law, the elected officials would have it changed in an instant. It’s only child prostitution. From where do they think some of the child pornography originates? That’s right, child prostitution.

Fix the law.