Agencies discuss child abuse, trafficking in Carson City

In a series of presentations hosted by Carson City Juvenile Services on July 11, “Shining Light on Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation and Human Trafficking,” the regional Human Exploitation and Trafficking (HEAT) unit addressed the city’s trends in prostitution, recruitment and grooming of victims and social media.

HEAT, formed in January 2020 among Washoe County law enforcement agencies, investigates sex trafficking and pandering crimes and educates the public.

Detectives Chris Johnson and Lexi Martinez said trends in Carson City are street level prostitution in which sex traffickers walk the streets to pick up young people, although Johnson said this is not occurring as frequently as in the past, or to walk casino floors and solicit gamblers to go up to rooms to conduct sex acts for money or chips.

“Online is where we’re seeing the most (activity) for sex purchasing and trafficking,” Johnson said. “There are specific websites and you type in specific needs, what city or state you’re in.”

As of July 13, Johnson said HEAT has made 10 juvenile victim recoveries and 27 adult recoveries in 2023. In 2022, there were 146 arrests and in 2021 there were 72.

Johnson said the Federal Bureau of Investigations once shut down the website Backpage, but there is no authority to do that for all illegal sex trafficking sites or recruiters.

It also occurs in residential brothels, which are separate from Nevada’s legal brothels, or weekly motels and Airbnbs.

“They’re going to do anything for money,” Johnson said. “They will sell a juvenile over and over again and they don’t care because they’re making money.”

Eighty-five percent of sex workers involved in the commercial sex trade are doing so under the control or supervision of a sex trafficker. Johnson said HEAT recently spoke with an 11-year-old victim in Reno.

“The two biggest points, as parents, are being proactive with your children and letting them know not to accept messages from people they don’t know,” he said. “That’s what we’re about. Eighty percent of the recruiting and the grooming is being done online.”

Xquisite Executive Director Brenda Sandquist and digital advocate and executive assistant Kassandra Butterfield discussed the Carson City organization’s mission to help survivors of sexual exploitation, sex trafficking and domestic violence.

Sandquist said Xquisite works to deliver care to survivors and helps them return to self-respect in cooperation with law enforcement and agencies in Carson City, Lyon, Douglas and Storey counties.

“A lot of times, I ask them, ‘What’s your dream?’ and a lot of them look at me and say, ‘Am I able to have a dream?’” she said. “Nevada can lead the way to freedom from exploitation.”

Carson City Sheriff’s Sgt. Brett Bindley spoke on how the investigative process works in assisting child victims, changes to look for in behaviors at home after a traumatic event and collecting evidence in a case. Bindley said one of the most important things family members can do is to be a good listener as a victim starts to disclose details and not to inadvertently suggest or insert details into the victim’s account.

Bindley also said as a criminal investigator gets a call for a case, a representative from the Sexual Assault Response Advocates (SARA) also gets a call to ensure they are attending to the victim, and victims can request a sexual assault kit, a medical exam conducted by certified nurses to collect forensic evidence of rape.

“When that victim is ready to disclose, we make sure that we have a criminal investigator there that’s ready to interview, protect, gather, preserve evidence, seize evidence to make sure we support what the allegation is,” Bindley said. “But by focusing just on that, sometimes we forgot about the human side, which is what the advocates are for.”

Traci Trenoweth, Sexual Assault Response Advocates coordinator for Advocates to End Domestic Violence, said counselors are available for follow-up, as well as school resource officers. SARA also provides 70-hour training for those willing to be advocates.

“We want to help in every best way we can,” Trenoweth said. “We do help with housing and transportation. We took somebody who was an adult but had been trafficked to Reno to get to an airport in Texas.”

About 30 attended the presentation held by the Department of Juvenile Services for Carson City and Storey County, according to juvenile outreach specialist Michelle Entz.