Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
When police searched the two-story house in Detroit, they found something that took even longtime cops by surprise: a woman chained to a stripper’s pole, with a padlock around her neck.
She’d been there for weeks, she told police — a form of punishment for trying to escape.
The 25-year-old woman told investigators she was a sex slave, one of four living in the home that authorities say was a prison-like brothel run by Ryon L. Travis, 32.
He called them his “wives,” but prosecutors have accused Travis of treating the women more like slaves who were marketed online for profit. After being unchained, the woman told police that over the past year and a half, he had forced her and the other women into sex work.
“She said that the defendant posted advertisements online and in chat rooms that he had four girls for sale,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward said. “If she or the other women refused to dance or perform sex acts, the defendant would be violent with them, and that he would hit them, kick them or push them down.”
Travis faces multiple charges, including sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and producing, possessing and transporting child pornography, according to an indictment. He has pleaded not guilty.
At the detention hearing, Travis told the court that he wanted the case dismissed. Travis said he considers himself a “sovereign citizen.”
In addition to believing they shouldn’t be forced to pay taxes, adherents of the sovereign citizen movement maintain that should be able to decide which laws to obey and which to ignore.
“All laws are commercial in nature, and I’m a natural-born human American man,” Travis said during the hearing. “So since all laws are commercial in nature and I choose not to do business with this court, I ask that this case be dismissed.”
Judge Mona Majzoub denied his request and ordered him detained until trial.
“You are a danger to children,” the judge said. “You are a danger to women. And you are a danger to people who are helpless in your presence.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/06/house-of-horrors-police-find-apparent-sex-slave-chained-to-strippers-pole-in-detroit-home/
She’d been there for weeks, she told police — a form of punishment for trying to escape.
The 25-year-old woman told investigators she was a sex slave, one of four living in the home that authorities say was a prison-like brothel run by Ryon L. Travis, 32.
He called them his “wives,” but prosecutors have accused Travis of treating the women more like slaves who were marketed online for profit. After being unchained, the woman told police that over the past year and a half, he had forced her and the other women into sex work.
“She said that the defendant posted advertisements online and in chat rooms that he had four girls for sale,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward said. “If she or the other women refused to dance or perform sex acts, the defendant would be violent with them, and that he would hit them, kick them or push them down.”
Travis faces multiple charges, including sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and producing, possessing and transporting child pornography, according to an indictment. He has pleaded not guilty.
At the detention hearing, Travis told the court that he wanted the case dismissed. Travis said he considers himself a “sovereign citizen.”
In addition to believing they shouldn’t be forced to pay taxes, adherents of the sovereign citizen movement maintain that should be able to decide which laws to obey and which to ignore.
“All laws are commercial in nature, and I’m a natural-born human American man,” Travis said during the hearing. “So since all laws are commercial in nature and I choose not to do business with this court, I ask that this case be dismissed.”
Judge Mona Majzoub denied his request and ordered him detained until trial.
“You are a danger to children,” the judge said. “You are a danger to women. And you are a danger to people who are helpless in your presence.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/06/house-of-horrors-police-find-apparent-sex-slave-chained-to-strippers-pole-in-detroit-home/