The first case involving Rhode Island's indoor human trafficking law was settled this month in Rhode Island Superior Court.
Magistrate Judge William McAtee gave defendants Andrew Fakhoury and Joseph Defeis the maximum sentence — 10 years jail time and 10 years of suspended probation. Until their arrest, the two ran a prostitution ring out of an apartment in North Providence.
"This case dispels the myth that human trafficking is limited to immigrants being brought to this country and sold into servitude," said state Attorney General Peter Kilmartin in an April 13 press release. "Human trafficking strips victims of their freedom and dignity."
Attorneys began investigating the case when a worried mother informed the Yonkers, N.Y. Police Department that her daughter had suddenly moved to Rhode Island under suspicious circumstances.
The daughter had been invited by Fakhoury, a childhood friend, to join him in Rhode Island, the mother told the Providence Journal.
The Providence Police Department and the Yonkers Police Department were able to trace the woman via Internet ads that listed the address of the North Providence apartment. When officers arranged a meeting with the woman, they were offered sexual acts for fees of $150 and $250, according to the Journal article.
"Prostitution isn't just in the streets," Sgt. Patrick McNulty told the Journal last week. "Human trafficking is a real thing in the U.S. It needs to be taken seriously."
In 2009, state Senator Paul Jabour, D-Providence, sponsored legislation in the Senate to close a loophole in the state's prostitution law that allowed indoor prostitution, as ruled in 1998 by the state Supreme Court. The legislation passed in 2010.
"Prostitution is normally considered outside solicitation," Jabour said, but his 2009 legislation allowed "officers to go behind doors" based on suspicious behavior, including "lewd conduct."
Technological advancements aided the migration of prostitution from the streets to indoor locations, Jabour added.
Rhode Island was the second-to-last state to outlaw prostitution. The act is still legal in some areas of Nevada.
But Jabour said the current law is "sufficient" in providing police with the tools needed to prosecute indoor prostitution.