Protecting the Vulnerable
Video Transcribed: Okay, so in a previous video, I spoke about what child prostitution is, and I mentioned that typically, a charge of human trafficking follows that. That’s what we’re going to talk about here today. Hello, I’m Ty Smith, an Oklahoma City area attorney with Wirth Law, and human trafficking is a serious felony in Oklahoma.
It is an 85 percenter, which essentially means that you will have to serve at least 85% of your time before you’re eligible for parole or to earn any credits for that.
In addition to that, you’ll have to pay some restitution to any victims that you have. So as I said, typically, human trafficking is associated with child prostitution. Now, human trafficking is the recruiting, enticing, harboring, and transporting of individuals against their will through means of fraud, force, the threat of force, or some forms of coercion to have them engage in sexual acts. Typically, that’s human trafficking. Although it can also be for other things like labor, typically, it is indeed for sexual trafficking.
Now, as I mentioned, Oklahoma considers this an 85% felony. That means for your penalty for conviction of this, you are looking at anywhere between five years minimum to life, or a fine of up to $100,000, or even both. They can throw both at you too, by statute. Now, if the individuals trafficked are under the age of 18, then that minimum gets raised up. It now becomes 15 to life with a $250,000 possible fine or even both. Okay? And as I mentioned earlier, you may have to pay some type of restitution to the victim’s family or to the victim themselves. It’s important to note that in human trafficking, the statute limits your possible defenses to this charge. You can’t claim that the individual consented to it. You can’t claim that the victim, the alleged victim, consented to this. You can’t claim that the alleged victim or that you didn’t know that you were engaging in human trafficking. Those aren’t going to fly. Those aren’t going to work. They are not even allowed to be brought up. Okay?
So the only possible defense is if the defendant can possibly claim that they are a victim of this same sexual trafficking scheme, okay? It’s the only possible defense to that. It’s a serious, serious felony. And if this sounds like your situation, hopefully not, or even if you just want to speak to someone about matters involving criminal law, I also do family law, I would love to speak to you about those things.
As I said before, my name’s Ty Smith, I’m a criminal defense lawyer in Oklahoma with Wirth Law. You can find me at theoklahomacityattorney.com, or you can call my office at (405) 888-5400, and I will gladly speak to you about these things.
