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<\/a>Trump’s Labor Nominee, R. Alexander Acosta: REUTERS\/Marc Serota<\/p><\/div>\n
CONCHITA SARNOFF
\nExecutive Director, Alliance to Rescue Victims of Trafficking
\nThe Daily Caller<\/p>\n
This week, R. Alex Acosta will attend his nomination hearing for the position of secretary of labor. \u201cWhat does Mr. Acosta have to do with teenage prostitution?\u201d you may ask. Plenty.<\/p>\n
Having worked with victims of human trafficking for more than a decade, I take offense to the expression, \u201cteenage prostitute.\u201d \u00a0The word \u201cprostitute\u201d carries with it the implication \u2014 albeit wrongly \u2014 that the child in reference\u2013boy or girl\u2013exercised some degree of choice and control in\u00a0the\u00a0\u201csale\u201d of sexual favors.\u00a0 That is usually ever the case. The word itself, \u201cteen prostitute,\u201d is a misnomer. The term is damaging and misleading.<\/p>\n
On Wikipedia, the source of all \u201cofficial\u201d information these days,\u00a0\u201cprostitute\u201d\u00a0is defined as: \u201cA person, in particular a woman, who engages in sexual activity for payment.\u201d Synonyms are: call girl and whore. \u00a0As for the business of prostitution, Wikipedia defines it as: \u201cThe business or\u00a0practice\u00a0of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment or some other benefit.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0In the meantime, \u201cchild\u201d is defined as: \u201cA young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority.\u201d \u00a0This definition includes a boy or girl or adult who is: \u201cImmature\u00a0or irresponsible person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given these classifications, one could take a broad view that most American teenagers act like juveniles and at times irresponsibly. Perhaps even immature given the bombardment of messages on mainstream and social media that enforce a \u201cstay young\u2014-have it all\u201d attitude pervasive in our \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for me\u201d cultural landscape. \u00a0In addition to a bombardment of \u00a0\u2018wrong\u2019 messaging, there is a lack of discipline prevalent in the average American household, school, and community that add to the juvenile assertiveness of most American teens.\u00a0 Child rearing and discipline seem at odds and are no longer mostly the norm.\u00a0 The proof is in the manner in which our youth react to events, personal situations and challenges in today\u2019s demanding acquisitive world. \u00a0Illicit drugs are on the rise amongst our teen population and part of the reason is perhaps to help them cope with and escape their reality. \u00a0On any given day, violence, drug abuse\u2013 which stunts emotional growth on the onset\u2014 and \u201cteen sex\u201d appear as the dominant themes in social and mainstream media stories.<\/p>\n
By definition a \u201cteen prostitute\u201d would disqualify a teenager from exposing child like behavior.\u00a0 The implication is that a \u201cteen prostitute\u201d has made a rational and educated decision, acknowledged his or her sexuality, taken on the full responsibility and weight of the decision, and trusted that his or her sexual activities were the only acceptable means of employment in order to earn a living. Could a teenager, specifically one sexually abused at age 13, 14 or 15 have the capacity to make such a life altering decision?<\/p>\n
This brings me to Mr. Acosta\u2019s nomination and the case of Virginia Louse Giuffre nee <\/em>Roberts.<\/a>\u2019\u00a0 Roberts has for many years (2005-2017) been branded a \u2018teenage prostitute\u2019 by the media even before she sued her alleged procurer, Ghislaine Noel Maxwell, in 2015. David Boies, Vice President Al Gore\u2019s legal representative in the 2000 Bush vs. Gore<\/em> presidential elections, and his powerful team are representing Virginia Louise Giuffre, pro bono.<\/p>\n In the case of Virginia Louise Giuffre, her personal history demonstrates she was never a \u2018teen prostitute\u2019 in spite of the multiple times she sold sexual favors to Jeffrey E. Epstein, the Wall Street billionaire pedophile convicted, in 2007, and his political and business associates.\u00a0 Epstein was charged with two counts of \u201csolicitation of prostitution with a minor,\u201d in Palm Beach, Florida although he was originally charged on multiple charges related to pedophilia. \u00a0After a two- year federal investigation, the United States Attorneys Office (USAO) and lead Florida prosecutor, R. Alex Acosta, prosecuted Epstein.\u00a0 Court files and depositions attest<\/a> the victim was raped and sexually abused by a family friend, Ron Eppinger, when she was twelve.<\/p>\n After Virginia was raped she ran away from home and spent most of her teen years escaping from trauma and sexual abuse. For a short stint she lived with her father, Sky Walker Roberts, in West Palm Beach while he worked as a maintenance manager at Mar-a-Lago Club, President Trump\u2019s Palm Beach resort.<\/p>\n At age 15 she met and \u201cfell in love\u201d with Jeffrey Epstein.\u00a0 At age 52, perhaps Epstein understood how to manipulate and gain the trust of a 15 year-old who had been sexually abused. \u00a0Enter Ghislaine Maxwell.<\/p>\n According to several depositions, Maxwell met Virginia while she was working as a bathroom attendant earning $9.00 an hour at Mar A Lago.\u00a0 The rest of the sordid story turned into one of the most notorious human trafficking cases in U.S. legal history. \u201cTrafficKing<\/a>\u201d was the first book to report the case.<\/p>\n Unlike most victims, Virginia managed to make a U turn in her life.\u00a0 The young woman is happily married, has three children and a career or perhaps a \u201ccalling\u201d to help other victims survive the trauma of sexual abuse and trafficking.\u00a0 Thanks to Virginia\u2019s attorneys and perhaps because of her trauma she created a foundation \u201cVictims Refuse Silence<\/a>,\u201d that help young girls and boys overcome sex trafficking.<\/p>\n In reference to Virginia\u2019s identification as a \u201cteen prostitute,\u201d one of Virginia\u2019s New York attorneys said, \u201cAs you know, this does not accurately describe Virginia\u2019s experience, either before she met Epstein or after.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s not clear that any teenage girl has the maturity to make an informed choice about prostitution, but in any event, Virginia did not.\u00a0 As a \u201crunaway\u201d (read that to mean a girl kicked out of her home) trying to survive, she had no meaningful choice in the way in which she did so.\u00a0\u00a0No matter how\u00a0you may want to re-define the word \u201cprostitute,\u201d she doesn\u2019t fit the definition, at least\u00a0not insofar as it carries moral opprobrium with it (as all media who use the term know it does).<\/p>\n In the ongoing case of Virginia Louise Roberts Giuffre vs. Ghislaine Maxwell,<\/em>scheduled for trial in New York on May 15, 2017, I take exception to The New York Post\u2019s comment about Virginia. \u00a0She is not a \u201cteenage prostitute.\u2019\u00a0 They applied this term to discredit her and vindicate the powerful dream team of attorneys hired by Jeffrey Epstein to defend him from dozens of teenage victims.<\/p>\n In spite of the influence peddling at the highest levels of government and the lax Non Prosecution Agreement, Mr. Acosta and his team should remain clear of any false misrepresentations. While at USAO, Acosta and his team accomplished three important goals \u2014 registration, restitution and jail time \u2014 when prosecuting the real criminal in this case, Jeffrey E. Epstein. \u00a0Although the penalties were not sufficiently lengthy given his alleged crimes or even federal in nature, the minimum mandatory guidelines under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)\u2014Epstein\u2019s case remained a State case\u2014Mr. Acosta succeeded in penalizing Epstein and gave many victims the opportunity of civil restitution and therefore, emotional healing, two important elements in any prosecution.\u00a0 Presently, two related civil cases continue.<\/p>\n