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Attorney General Andy Beshear says a Kansas man who attempted to purchase a Kentucky child online for $500 and drugs earlier this year was sentenced to five years and designated a lifetime sex offender.
Ernest Merle John Anziana, 49, of Fredonia, Kansas, was sentenced Oct. 19 in Franklin Circuit Court to five counts of unlawful use of electronic means originating or received within the Commonwealth of Kentucky to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited activities, all Class D felonies; and one count of promoting human trafficking, a Class C felony.
After release from prison, Anziana is required to register as a lifetime sex offender and must complete an approved sex offender treatment program. He will be under post-incarceration supervision as a sex offender.
The investigation began early in 2018 when Beshear’s Cyber Crimes Unit obtained information that Anziana was attempting to solicit sex from an underage child in Kentucky and offered to purchase the child for $500 and 7 grams of methamphetamine.
Following the unit’s lead, the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office out of Kansas traced the information back to Anziana.
Anziana was also charged with solicitation to commit human trafficking in Greenwood County, which is located in the southeast portion of Kansas nearly 700 miles from Frankfort.
Anziana was indicted in Franklin Circuit Court Feb. 6, 2018, and was served with the indictment warrant in Kansas Feb. 7, 2018 when he was arrested. He was extradited to Kentucky, and his bond was set at $500,000.
“The details involved in this case are disturbing, yet our office encounters human trafficking cases in every county, city and community across Kentucky,” Beshear said. “Human trafficking represents the worst form of abuse, most often in children, like we have in this case. Every part of my office is committed to investigating and prosecuting predators seeking to harm our children and families. I want to thank our cyber investigators, the team at the Greenwood County Sheriff’s office, and the Franklin Commonwealth’s Attorney for prosecuting the case.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Zachary Becker prosecuted the case.
Beshear created the Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention when he entered office. The office, along with the Department of Criminal Investigations, has 15 open human trafficking cases, and over the course of 2018 the offices have been involved in 31 arrests or citations involving the crime.
Upon taking office in 2016, Beshear teamed up with Catholic Charities of Louisville to secure a three-year, $1.5 million federal grant to help train law enforcement, increase victim services and hire the state’s first full-time human trafficking investigator.
In February, the office secured a 20-year sentence against former Campbell County District Judge Timothy Nolan on numerous felony charges, including human trafficking of adults and minors.
Last month, Beshear joined Rep. Dennis Keene, of Wilder, to announce legislation that would grant the Office of the Attorney General the ability to investigate crimes, like human trafficking, that can occur across multiple jurisdictions.
If a human trafficking victim is in immediate danger dial 911 or report suspected human trafficking of a child to 877-KYSAFE1. Victims of human trafficking may call or text the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888.
Helping transit employees identify and report human trafficking when they encounter it on the streets of the Greater Louisville area is the goal of a new training effort announced Thursday by Attorney General Andy Beshear.
At Union Station, Beshear and J. Barry Barker, the Transit Authority of River City (TARC) executive director, rolled out human trafficking awareness training and reporting protocols that focus on the specific needs of nearly 400 TARC managers, dispatchers and bus drivers.
Beshear said trafficking occurs in countless locations in every community in this state, including at bus terminals where traffickers try to recruit victims and on busses where victims are transported.
“TARC employees are among those who serve as the eyes and ears of our community, and this training will help ensure they are in a better position to spot potential human trafficking situations and safely assist victims,” Beshear said. “Our partnership with TARC presents a momentous opportunity to confront human trafficking throughout Greater Louisville.”
Beshear said TARC will be a strong partner to help fight one of the nation’s fasting growing crimes because it has more than 15 million customers on 41 routes in five counties in Kentucky and southern Indiana.
“TARC is proud to partner with the Attorney General to bring awareness to and support their efforts in leading the fight against human trafficking,” Barker said. “As an agency that interacts with the public every day, the training provided by the Attorney General’s office positions us to be of great service in recognizing and reporting signs of trafficking in our region.”
Beshear’s Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution is prepared to train TARC employees beginning Oct. 29.
The training includes guidance on the signs of human trafficking, questions to ask suspected victims and reporting protocols. Awareness signage, including window clings for over 200 buses, a wallet card for each driver and brochures will be distributed at the training thanks to Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) Busing on the Lookout program.
Beshear said he is thankful for the support of Truckers Against Trafficking, an organization that his office worked with to train Kentucky commercial drivers and truck-stop employees on how to recognize and report human trafficking.
Beshear also recognized Maryhurst on Thursday, a nonprofit agency that helps survivors of abuse and young women who are vulnerable to human trafficking, for hosting human trafficking training for their staff and leadership.
“Even though trafficking can be difficult to see, there are clear warning signs that anyone can spot with the right training,” said Judy Lambeth, president and chief executive officer of Maryhurst. “The girls who come to us have terribly upsetting stories full of pain and trauma, most often inflicted in secret. We’re supportive of the TARC program because it will empower our system to better expose – and ultimately remedy – situations where trafficking is common.”
Other public and private agencies including all Kentucky Transportation Cabinet highway incident safety professionals, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, hotel and hospitality industry employees, firefighters, EMTs and paramedics have joined Beshear’s fight against trafficking, allowing the office to train more than 5,000 individuals statewide.
Thursday’s announcement is the latest in a string of moves Beshear has taken to turn his office into the leading state agency fighting human trafficking – a crime that often targets children for sex or labor services.
Upon taking office in 2016, Beshear teamed up with Catholic Charities of Louisville to secure a three-year, $1.5 million federal grant to help train law enforcement, increase victim services and hire the state’s first full-time human trafficking investigator.
Beshear’s office currently has 15 open human trafficking cases, and over the course of 2018 the office has been involved in 31 arrests or citations involving the crime. In February, the office secured a 20-year sentence against former Campbell County District Judge Timothy Nolan on numerous felony charges, including human trafficking of adults and minors.
Last month, Beshear joined Rep. Dennis Keene, of Wilder, to announce legislation that would grant the Office of the Attorney General the ability to investigate crimes, like human trafficking that can occur across multiple jurisdictions.
If a human trafficking victim is in immediate danger dial 911 and report suspected human trafficking of a child to 877-KYSAFE1. Victims of human trafficking may call or text the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888.
Attorney General Andy Beshear today announced a third human trafficking arrest tied to a joint investigation by his office and Louisville Metro Police Department.
Quentin J. Burris, 26, of Louisville, was arrested yesterday in Louisville on two counts of human trafficking with victims under 18 years of age, Class B felonies.
Burris’s arrest is in connection with the search warrant served Feb. 13 at a Louisville home by Beshear’s Department of Criminal Investigations and LMPD’s Special Victim’s Unit.
The joint operation is active and ongoing. Burris is lodged at the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections with a $100,000 cash bond.
Burris along with Abigail Varney and Nigel Nicholas have all been charged in connection to the investigation, which led to the discovery of two 16-year-old female victims who were being sold for sex on Backpage in January 2018.
The Backpage website is a major classified advertising website that promoted prostitution and sex trafficking, including the trafficking of children.
Since taking office, Beshear has worked to change a federal law that prevented the investigation and prosecution of companies like Backpage by state, territorial and local authorities.
In March, congress passed a law to allow these authorities to join the fight to hold accountable those who promote and facilitate child sex trafficking online.
In April, Federal law enforcement agencies seized the Backpage website.
“We are grateful Backpage, which has been used as a means of promoting the rape of children, is no longer active,” said Beshear. “We are monitoring federal actions against the website and want to ensure those responsible are held accountable.”
A core mission of Beshear’s is to bring justice to victims of rape, sexual assault and human trafficking.
Beshear has established the Kentucky Attorney General’s office as the leading state agency fighting human trafficking.
The office, along with the Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations, handles human trafficking cases, and assists local law enforcement and prosecutors on human trafficking complaints.
To learn more about human trafficking and efforts to fight it, contact the Attorney General’s Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution at 502-696-5300 or visit Catholic Charities of Louisville Rescue and Restore program website at http://www.rescueandrestoreky.org. The national human trafficking hotline number is 888-373-7888.
Attorney General Andy Beshear is calling the passage of federal legislation amending the 1996 Communications Decency Act a “victory” in Kentucky’s fight to hold accountable those who promote and facilitate child sex trafficking online.
Online companies, like Backpage, profit from the promotion of child sex trafficking, but the 1996 Communications Decency Act has prevented the investigation and prosecution of these companies by state, territorial and local authorities, Beshear said.
Recently passed H.R. 1865 or Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 changes that, and Beshear hopes the President will swiftly sign the legislation into law.
“Every day in our county children are being sold for sex through companies like Backpage that are profiting from this horrendous child abuse,” Beshear said. “I commend the lawmakers who voted to help us stop this vile abuse.”
“Passing laws that hold those who profit from the victimization of others accountable for their actions is an important step in making survivors of sex trafficking whole,” said Angela Renfro, founder of the Kristy Love Foundation. “We are encouraged to see our Attorney General Beshear and other states’ attorneys general have this new weapon in the fight to end human trafficking.”
Beshear has established the Kentucky Attorney General’s office as the leading state agency fighting human trafficking, a modern-day form of slavery in which adults and children are forced into sex or labor services.
In the first three months of 2018, Beshear’s office has arrested a Louisville man and woman on human trafficking charges, and a Kansas man who attempted to purchase a Kentucky child for $250 and in exchange for drugs in a separate case. The office also secured the guilty plea of a Lawrenceburg man in March on human trafficking charges.
In February, Beshear’s office secured the guilty plea of former Campbell County District Judge Timothy Nolan on numerous felony charges, including human trafficking of adults, promoting human trafficking of minors and unlawful transaction with minors. He is scheduled to serve 20 years in prison.
The AG’s office, along with Catholic Charities of Louisville, received a federal grant in 2016, the first Department of Justice grant ever awarded to a Kentucky agency for human trafficking. The federal grant provides support to the statewide human trafficking taskforce in its efforts to develop a process for collecting and interpreting data on human trafficking and model protocols for victim-centered response, investigation and prosecution of these cases.
The funding allowed a specially trained human trafficking investigator to be hired.
The office offers training to organizations throughout the Commonwealth, and has trained over 4,000 individuals statewide, while forging partnerships with the trucking and hospitality industries and the Baptist Convention.
Human trafficking victims are often the most marginalized in society – victims of abuse and violence, runaways, refugees, immigrants or those who are homeless, Beshear said.
To learn more about human trafficking and efforts to fight it, contact the Attorney General’s Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution at 502-696-5300 or visit Catholic Charities of Louisville Rescue and Restore program website at http://www.rescueandrestoreky.org. The national human trafficking hotline number is 888-373-7888.
Health care workers, law enforcement officials, first responders and civic leaders in Western Kentucky have requested Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office train them in human trafficking awareness.
“Human trafficking represents the worst form of abuse, often to children, and it is increasing all over Kentucky,” Beshear said. “It occurs in every county, city and community in this state. We have an opportunity and obligation to prevent, identify and prosecute human trafficking cases, and by working with these groups in Western Kentucky, we can better work toward that goal.”
The training begins July 24 at 9 a.m. at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah for law enforcement and first responders. Nikki Coursey with Lourdes is a member of Beshear’s statewide Human Trafficking Taskforce.
At noon on July 24, a training will be held in Benton at the Majestic Steak House during the Marshall County Rotary Club’s monthly meeting. At 2 p.m., a training for law enforcement and first responders will be held at the Joe Creason Community Center in Benton.
Lourdes Hospital will hold three trainings July 25 for its clinical staff: 7:15 a.m., noon and 2:30 p.m. At 9 a.m. Beshear’s office will speak to law enforcement officials at the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police Conference at the Paducah Convention Center.
Beshear’s office will hold upcoming trainings across the state including ones for Keeneland staff July 17 and 18; Fayette County Public School staff July 28; Jefferson County Public School psychologists Aug. 1; and the Juvenile Justice Advisory Board Conference Aug. 8 in Lexington.
Over the last year, Beshear has established the Kentucky Attorney General’s office as the leading agency fighting human trafficking, a modern-day form of slavery in which adults and children are forced into sex or labor services.
Beshear’s office is currently working 14 human trafficking cases and has assisted local law enforcement with resources in an effort to resolve 96 other human trafficking complaints. His office has trained over 1,500 individuals statewide and forged partnerships with the trucking and hospitality industries, and the Baptist Convention.
The AG’s office, along with Catholic Charities of Louisville, received a federal grant in 2016, the first Department of Justice grant ever awarded to a Kentucky agency for human trafficking. The federal grant provides support to the statewide human trafficking taskforce in its efforts to develop a process for collecting and interpreting data on human trafficking and model protocols for victim-centered response, investigation and prosecution of these cases.
The funding allowed a specially trained human trafficking investigator to be hired.
Human trafficking victims are often the most marginalized in society – victims of abuse and violence, runaways, refugees, immigrants or those who are homeless, Beshear said.
In 2016, Beshear’s office arrested more online child predators than any year in the history of the office. The number of arrests, indictments and convictions totaled nearly 80. His cyber crime investigators also assist with the forensic review of technology on local human trafficking cases.
To learn more about human trafficking and efforts to fight it, contact the Attorney General’s Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution at 502-696-5300 or visit Catholic Charities of Louisville Rescue and Restore program website at http://www.rescueandrestoreky.org. The national human trafficking hotline number is 888-373-7888.
