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Clark County Family Court Judge William Voy presides during a hearing of juveniles charged with prostitution on Feb. 23, 2011.
Monday, March 7, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Prostitution bill
- Do you support a bill to allow those convicted of prostitution who were also victims of trafficking or involuntary servitude to have their convictions vacated?
- Yes — 77.8%
- No — 22.2%
This poll is closed, see Full Results »
Note: This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.
Annie Lobert
Sun Archives
- Man accused of sexual assault, forcing Canadian tourist into prostitution (2-9-11)
- Facing possible life sentence, troubles worsen for alleged pimp (8-8-09)
- The pimp: Was it a role or was it a reality? (8-1-09)
- Pimps, Metro's coming for you (3-20-2009)
- Letters of sorrow and need (12-7-2008)
- Hawking erotic services? Craigslist now has your number (11-29-2008)
- 'John School' teaches men the uglier facts of life (1-6-2008)
- Hands tied on prostitution (9-15-07)
- Mutual misery when daughters disappear (9-24-2006)
Sexually abused as a child and pimped as a teen in Hawaii, Annie Lobert fell into the violent side of prostitution. She was beaten, raped, tied up and more than once had a gun barrel shoved into her mouth.
Lobert said she was convicted of solicitation just once in 25 arrests from ages 19 to 23, but it took seven years to get her record sealed by a judge.
Now she’s opening up about her experiences to help others. The former Las Vegas call girl runs Hookers for Jesus, a faith-based organization in Southern Nevada that helps women escape prostitution. And she supports a proposed state law that would let prostitutes have misdemeanor convictions erased if they can prove they were victims of human trafficking or involuntary servitude.
Supporters of Assembly Bill 6 say that vacating prostitution convictions will help victims get legitimate jobs and heal emotionally without hassling to seal their records.
But Lobert’s support for AB6 comes with a condition.
“It’s great as long as the girls aren’t required to testify against their pimps,” she said. “They most likely won’t testify because they’d be afraid for their lives.”
Sponsored by Assemblyman John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, AB6 is awaiting a hearing before the Assembly Judiciary Committee along with companion bills the retired federal Secret Service and immigration agent hopes will increase penalties against pimps. Hambrick was drawn to the trafficking issue while serving on the Metro Police Citizen Review Board. He quickly learned how prostitution destroys the spirit of juvenile and adult prostitutes.
“I believe as a society we must address this problem because it is a scourge, a cancer,” he said.
New York last year became the first state to enact a law resembling AB6, and similar legislation is pending in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania. That’s according to Julie Janovsky, senior policy specialist with the Polaris Project, an anti-trafficking organization in Washington. Janovsky helped Hambrick draft AB6.
“If Nevada passes this bill, it would establish a trend in understanding the link between sex trafficking and prostitution,” she said. “This is something that will help victims of trafficking move on with their lives.”
Las Vegas long has been considered a hot spot for prostitution driven by trafficking. Shared Hope International, an advocacy group in Vancouver, Wash., reported that in one month in 2007, more than 400 children were working the streets of Las Vegas as prostitutes. Not surprisingly, Melissa Snow, Shared Hope’s program director, supports AB6.
“You and I know how significant it is to have a prostitution charge on your record,” Snow said. “It has legal and emotional implications. Wiping that label clean gives someone a chance to take the path toward recovery.”
Clark County Family Court Judge William Voy said AB6 would affect women age 18 and older. That’s because he has agreements with the Clark County district attorney’s and public defender’s offices to reduce solicitation convictions of those under 18 to minor nuisance violations that carry probation.
With hearings each Wednesday morning, he sees about 150 cases annually involving those younger than 18. Voy wants the county to spend $725,000 a year — money the county says it doesn’t have — to staff a full-time safe house where juveniles could get counseling, heal emotionally and physically, and break away from their pimps. Like Voy, Las Vegas Municipal Judge Cynthia Leung said she is neutral on AB6 but understands the logic behind the legislation.
Leung conducts the Women in Need specialty court on Thursdays for adult prostitutes seeking treatment for substance abuse financed by trading sex for money. Of hundreds of prostitutes she has seen over three years, just 11 have graduated from the court’s program, which also offers housing and education assistance.
The low success rate, she said, is because most women who participate drop out before completing the court’s program, which can take up to 18 months. They ultimately revert to prostitution, Leung said, because of “their unwillingness to want to change.”
Clark County Family Court Judge William Voy presides during a hearing of juveniles charged with prostitution on Feb. 23, 2011.
Another problem, Leung said, is finding employers willing to hire those convicted of solicitation. She wants prosecutors to reduce solicitation charges to lesser crimes such as jaywalking.
“What I’m trying to do is get these women to the point where they can get a job,” Leung said. “If they have a record, it’s difficult because that conviction can hurt them.”
If AB6 is approved, Leung said the burden would still be on the women to prove they were trafficking victims. But the ones she sees are virtually all longtime independent operators who either don’t have pimps or aren’t willing to testify that they are victims of trafficking or involuntary servitude. So she’s not sure what effect AB6 will have.
Metro Police made 2,772 solicitation arrests last year. All but 48 involved adults 18 and older. Also, 107 children were apprehended because of possible connections to prostitution, such as being with adult prostitutes. Over the past three years, Metro also has arrested 200 pimps or their associates, including others who help them recruit women.
“Las Vegas is a major pit stop for pimps who are marketing women as prostitutes,” Metro vice Lt. Karen Hughes said. “It’s part of what we call the circuit, along with Seattle, Portland, Miami and Hawaii.”
Women who are forced into prostitution and are new to the profession are commonly referred to as “turnouts.” Hughes described a typical case. A woman comes to Las Vegas in hopes of becoming a stripper. At a friend’s recommendation, she meets a man she thinks will help her get work. She decides to live with him and is befriended by another woman who resides with the same man. The other woman introduces the would-be stripper to prostitution.
The man beats her and forces her to stick with prostitution through intimidation, including threats against family members.
Hughes supports AB6 but said it shouldn’t erase prostitution convictions for those who keep working but haven’t indicated they were forced. “There are women involved in prostitution who say ‘it is my choice,’ ” she said.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger said, “When we bring a case of prostitution, we look beyond the actual case to see if the alleged prostitute is truly a victim. Our goal is to locate the pimps and take them off the streets.”
County Public Defender Phil Kohn, whose office represented 730 women accused of prostitution over the past two years, called AB6 “a great idea that is incredibly insightful” on Hambrick’s part. But Kohn also said the legislation might not help women who were trafficked as juveniles but who continued to be prostitutes as adults.
“How do you prove that a 23-year-old prostitute was trafficked when she was 15?” Kohn said. “Assuming she may have used a lot of drugs at the time, she probably wouldn’t be a good historian.”
UNLV criminal justice professor Alexis Kennedy said that instead of approving AB6, Nevada should adopt the Swedish model in which only the customers of prostitutes or pimps are arrested. Under reforms Sweden enacted in 1999, all prostitutes are assumed to be victims.
In Nevada, figures from 2009 showed that 3,555 women were arrested statewide for prostitution, compared with 459 men apprehended for prostitution-related crimes.
What this shows, Kennedy said, “is the underlying victimization of the sellers. They’re already experiencing hardship.”
is it was legalized and girls had health checks etc the pimps would be out, only when something is illegal does it drive it underground and gangsters take control..
Same with drugs when they are legal there is no value in them, gangsters move on..
collect taxes on legal prostitutes to finance schemes to help so called "trafficked people"
The Swedish Model or Amserdam Model makes sense. Either way, you are dealing with the oldest profession, it should ALWAYS be illegal as slavery or inservitude, for some individuals, they truly enjoy it as a business profession, so be it. Either way, we need to get the illegal sex trade off the streets, slavery off the streets.
For those who turned their lives around and need their records sealed, do a one time deal.
european model is more apt.
same in australia too, legal there and the girls are protected
I see Ms. Lobert just went from one kind of prostitution to another. All for what's essentially whining about the choices she made in her own life and now crusading to push religion on the rest of us.
Maybe while the legislature is updating this law they may want to address its inherent conflict -- Nevada's age of consent is 16, not 18, so the "younger than 18" is a crap excuse for prosecution.
And all for a "crime" that is essentially what consenting citizens do in private -- somewhere police have no business being. And the courts, along with the rest of this machine we've allowed our republic to become, profit from it. Time for the budget ax to chop away.
"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion." -- Arthur C. Clarke, 1999, from "God, Science, and Delusion: A Chat With Arthur C. Clarke" in Free Inquiry magazine
slick greasy slimy big toothed phony smiling brian sandoval...
our pathetic one term governor...
supports prostitution...
hates education...
slick greasy slimy big toothed phony smiling brian sandoval...
Is A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FRAUD!!!
@killerB. "She was beaten, raped, tied up and more than once had a gun barrel shoved into her mouth." According to you those were voluntary premeditated choices? You don't have an f'n clue what goes on out there. You just give us moralistic quotes all the time and whine and don't do anything but. Maybe you should run for office and try to fix the ills YOU whine about. Come on, man, use some sense regarding the victim. The rest of your commentary about our society is fine - but really, no one chooses what she went through.
"According to you those were voluntary premeditated choices?"
chediski -- back off, read my post again, then THINK. I posted none of what you accused. And like all crusaders she seems bent on getting the law changed based on anecdotes and emotional pleas. Although the law should not only be changed but expanded to decriminalize prostitution entirely, I see nothing in this article about police reports proving any of those incidents.
"The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people." - Noam Chomsky
Good for her, wish there where more like her
Just legalize it in a red light district and stop trying to pretend that it does not exist.
It is one of the main draws for rich men who come to LV.
Rich people always have the hookers. Remember Hiedy Fliesh?
Why can't our politians deal with facts and not illusions?
@Killer - thanks - re-read your post. Looked again "All for what's essentially whining about the CHOICES she made..." I'm sorry, did I not see you write "all the choices she made?" Since you don't see police reports you think she's lying about her "incidents?" OK - that's your opinion and like I said I have no issue with your societal commentary which is worthy of discussion. Have a good day.
Because prostitution is much more complex than people like to think, I see a lot of problems and unintended consequences here. First, all prostitution is not forced and all prostitution is not slavery despite the hysterical claims you see from zealots in the media and activist organizations who have a different agenda than protecting women. We have legal brothels in Nevada. That is not slavery. Period.
Next, we have a definitions problem. Human trafficking, as defined in federal law, does not require the elements of force or restraint. This was not an accident when the conservatives who wanted this law sought to use it as a federal anti-prostitution crusade in addition to fighting trafficking. So, trafficking does not necessarily mean that someone was forced or restrained.
Despite incidents of trafficking, I cannot support this because likely many women did also indeed violate the law by willfully offering and soliciting themselves to prostitution. If we give women a pass on breaking the law, we must also give a pass to the men who have been convicted of solicitation.
This whole mess arises from the complications of the govt trying to outlaw prostitution outright in the first place. If the govt had allowed it, and regulated it, we would not have all these legal messes and we would not have so many case of women abused in underground operations. It comes down to that fact that prohibitions do not work.
The Swedish model is a gender-biased model where all prostitution is blamed on the male gender by default. It is absurd and cannot work in the US because we have a Constitution, if actually upheld, which is another problem, protects all people from gender-based persecution. The Swedish model was cooked up by radical feminists whose agenda was more geared toward hating men than caring for women. In the Swedish model, the women, who willfully promote themselves as prostitutes, are treated as "victims" regardless of the circumstances. That is gender biased and absurd and it will encourage abuse of the program by women seeking govt handouts and favoritism treatment.
chedeski -- apparently neither of us are always good on the semantics. That's enough for now.
Bob635, culturechange -- good posts!
How do you deal with the federal defintion of trafficking which does NOT require force or restraint to meet the definition of "trafficking"?
{so killer- who is pushing religion on 'the rest of us'? are you a former prostitute? a formerly trafficked human being? i seriously doubt it. so quit your whining over something that never happened or will happen.}
as for any person, male or female, that has been coerced into hooking, this is a way to move on and transcend to a better life.
what is absolutely sickening is that, all of a sudden (is it an election year?) legal prostitution is under attack. absolutely silly, stupid, and completely unnecessary.
as a matter of fact, the city and county LICENSE "escorts" (time and companionship only, wink, wink, nudge nudge)
but DO NOT REQUIRE a health card!!!!
http://www.southernnevadahealthdistrict....
uh, okay. let's all stick our collective heads in the sand and ignore what is really going on. what's really going on is millions of dollars of uncollected tax revenue is being thrown away because we, as a community want to ignore it.
this is not an issue that affects our female population, as there are many male/gay prostitutes working in the valley.
It's time to realize that it's not going away and grow up and legalize it, tax it, make it healthful and safe, just like in the legal brothels, and to make it available to any ADULT, male or female who wants to participate, on whatever side of the transaction they stand, or lay upon.
Police dont go on stings to arrest on person. They bring a van or bus for the arrests. What about the Johns who were likley arrested and convicted at the same time Annie was arrested and convicted? They also have a right to have thier convictions overturned.
hey district attorney david rogers...
how are those hepatitis epidemic cases going buddy???
you know it been quite a while now...
roughly 50,000 people affected...
only 3 charged...
only 1 doctor charged...
no one in jail yet...
no one on death row yet...
what seems to be the hold up pal???
hmmm???
are you just lazy???
are you incompetent???
are you a complete and total joke incapable of protecting the citizens of clark county???
got to tell you buddy...
birdie is leaning toward the last explanation...
Stop prosecuting hookers and GO AFTER THE PIMPS. Pimping attitude is rather incurable and should never be considered to erase the record. Using people for money.... You can still arrest the hookers, hold them a day or three, and indict a few but drop it when you get the info on the pimps.
All convictions for anyone should be erased after 20 years.
PS
Except for violent offenders.
Tvegas, I agree but the problem is that the politicians cant stop perverting the legal definitions. In many States, possession of child porn is considered "violent" by legal definition....even if all they did was download on the internet. I certianly dont defend child porn, but this is how the system got so screwed up. Politicians leaveraging political correctness to screw up the law. And to some degree that is what they are doing here by making this a gender-biased thing.
I'd say that if they have truly put it behind them, seal the record, and if they stay clean for a certain time, say 7 or 10 years, clear the record altogether. After all, If a rock star can drive drunk after a previous dui fatal accident (even if it is 20 years later), and get a slap on the wrist, then why not reward the people in this article who are trying to go straight and go on with their life. I imagine many employers eould not hire them if they knew their past.
I also think the pimps who recruit these girls (and treat them terribly) should have tougher sanctions (prison) when caught. I also have no problem with the police prosecuting the customers of these girls. Some cities have stings and print the names of those arrested in the paper.
The problem with publishing the names is that they slander the person's name BEFORE they have a conviction. Remember that "innocent until proven guilty" thing they taught in govt studies.
And why is it ok for the women, who broke the law, to be given a pass, but the men must be publically punished and humiliated?
"...the problem is that the politicians cant stop perverting the legal definitions."
culturechange -- another good post!
You'll like this one -- "An average, busy professional gets up in the morning, gets the kids to school, goes to work, uses the telephone or e-mail, has meetings, works on a prospectus or bank loan, goes home, puts the kids to bed, has dinner, reads the newspaper, goes to sleep, and has no idea that, in the course of that day, he or she has very likely committed three felonies. Three felonies that some ambitious, creative prosecutor can pick out from that day's activities and put into an indictment." -- from the opening of "The Criminalization of Almost Everything" @ http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v...
Sounds too much like MORE WORK FOR ATTORNEYS. We don't need more of that. Find another way--perhaps as mentioned--record expires (on prostitution related convictions only) 5 years later, 10 years later?