12/20/2019 Trafficking victims can clear arrest records, but it isn't easy - News - The Ledger - Lakeland, FL

Tra cking victims can clear arrest

records, but it isn’t easy
By Gary White
Posted Nov 9, 2019 at 10:02 AM
Updated Nov 10, 2019 at 7:04 AM

Law passed in 2013 allows victims of human

trafficking to clear records of arrests that resulted,
but process can be slow and complicated.

LAKELAND — Florida law enables victims of sex trafficking to clear

their records of any arrests that occurred as a result of their trafficking.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd cites that option for victims as
justification for his department’s arrests of girls and women engaged in
commercial sex. But the process of having records wiped away is neither
easy nor fast.

The Justice Restoration Center in Dunedin is a nonprofit organization

dedicated to helping trafficking victims erase criminal records.
Executive director Brent Woody said Florida has the best such law in
the nation, and his organization has worked with more than 200
victims.

Even when victims have his organization on their side, though, Woody
said it can be a lengthy and cumbersome effort.

“The process, like a lot of things, it’s a little more complex than it looks
like on the surface,” Woody said. “It is not an automatic process. It
sometimes sounds like that’s going to be an easy thing.”

https://www.theledger.com/news/20191109/trafficking-victims-can-clear-arrest-records-but-it-isnt-easy 1/4
12/20/2019 Trafficking victims can clear arrest records, but it isn't easy - News - The Ledger - Lakeland, FL

Almost all of the Justice Restoration Center’s clients have been girls and
women, Woody said, even though a United Nations report from 2012
suggested that 25% of victims worldwide are male. A majority have been
involved with a recovery program.

Woody said the first challenge is getting trafficking victims to realize —

or admit — that they are victims, and then to make sworn statements.
Some have grown up amid exploitation, and others are so afraid of their
traffickers that even once free they resist taking the steps needed to have
their records cleared.

“Sometimes they get out — and this is almost universal, across the board
— they’re terrified to disclose the trafficker’s identity,” Woody said.
“They just want to get away.”

Woody, whose nonprofit never charges its clients, said the

expungement process has three main phases. In the preparatory phase,
his organization gathers all the required records from law enforcement
agencies to document arrests that occurred while the victim was being
trafficked.

Establishing that someone is a trafficking victim can be exceedingly

difficult, Woody said. In some cases, authorities never investigated the
trafficker. That’s especially true for women trafficked decades ago,
before law enforcement began focusing on the issue. Or the victim
might know him only by a street name, not his real name.

The records eligible for expunction are not limited to those from
prostitution arrests. Woody said victims might have been arrested on
drug charges or have been forced to commit thefts or other crimes.

“We could have one petition, and it could contain 30 cases or more,”
Woody said. “If you have somebody who’s trafficked over 10 years and
arrested constantly, week after week, for prostitution, they’re going to
have a lengthy record. And if you add in some drug charges along the
way — because that’s how the trafficker was controlling them — you
could get a petition involving 100 cases.”

https://www.theledger.com/news/20191109/trafficking-victims-can-clear-arrest-records-but-it-isnt-easy 2/4
12/20/2019 Trafficking victims can clear arrest records, but it isn't easy - News - The Ledger - Lakeland, FL

Anyone younger than 18 and involved in commercial sex is

automatically considered a victim, but that wasn’t the case in the past.
For those arrested as minors before the change in law, it can be a
challenge to find support for their claim that they were trafficked at the
time.

Victims, or their advocates, must contact law enforcement agencies or a

state attorney’s office and receive letters or other documents confirming
that they were victims of trafficking during a specified period. Because
victims are dealing with trauma, Woody said it can take months or
longer for them to feel strong enough to take all the required steps.

In the second phase, the material is then filed in court, and the victim
awaits a response from the prosecuting agency. The authorities might
object or take a neutral position, but Woody said prosecutors often urge
the court to grant the request for expunction.

Though the law has been around for six years, Woody said some state
attorney’s offices and even some judges remain unfamiliar with it and
assume the victim is seeking a traditional expunction of arrest records,
which involves a much different process.

A general expunction is not available after a judgment of guilt or a

violation of probation order after adjudication is withheld. Many
categories of crime are excluded from a general clearing of records.

If a judge grants the request for expunction, the victim is judged legally
never to have committed the crimes in question. Law enforcement
agencies and clerks of court are directed in the judge’s order to clear the
relevant criminal records.

Erasing arrests can provide great benefits toward finding employment

and housing, seeking custody of children and otherwise turning a
victim’s life around. But the taint on a survivor’s reputation often
spreads beyond the legal ledger.

https://www.theledger.com/news/20191109/trafficking-victims-can-clear-arrest-records-but-it-isnt-easy 3/4
12/20/2019 Trafficking victims can clear arrest records, but it isn't easy - News - The Ledger - Lakeland, FL

Woody talked of petitioning law enforcement agencies to have images

and names of victims caught up in sting operations deleted from their
websites and social media accounts. And an entire industry has emerged
in recent years devoted to publicizing mug shots and details of arrests.

Working on behalf of victims, Woody said he requests the removal of

booking photos and other information from websites, including those
of newspapers. Under Florida law, any website that charges for the
removal of arrest information is required to delete it when presented
with proof of expungement.

Among the rest, Woody said some cooperate and others don’t,
especially when the arrests occurred years ago.

In addition to lengthy arrest records, survivors sometimes must also

deal with credit problems resulting from their period of trafficking,
Woody said.

“Expungement isn’t the only legal issue that a survivor could come out
of a situation with,” Woody said. “Very often, they’ve been forced to
take out credit on behalf of the trafficker. So they may be saddled with
credit cards or car leases or all kinds of crazy things.”

All told, the process might take more than a year, Woody said. But the
ordeal is worth it for trafficking survivors who emerge with reputations
reclaimed.

“When trafficking survivors can eliminate those criminal records, it

opens up those opportunities that are so critical to building new lives,”
Woody said. “When a survivor is absolved of an undeserved arrest
record, there is a sense of deserved justice that can change a survivor’s
perspective about themselves and moving forward.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518.

Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

https://www.theledger.com/news/20191109/trafficking-victims-can-clear-arrest-records-but-it-isnt-easy 4/4