My client is a pretty, young Hispanic lady who enjoys having sex for money, allegedly. She is working at a 'cantina' one night, racking up notches on her belt, allegedly, when two brutes walk in the door in their finest boots (okay this part is made up, although this is a real thing).
The two gentlemen offer to buy my client a cerveza. They then try to get her to agree to have sex with them for money. Little does my client know that these men are clandestine operatives of the police force, and on this particular night, the FBI, Harris County Sheriff, HPD, ICE, and several other 'law enforcement' organizations are about to execute a big human trafficking bust. In layman's terms, the two guys were VICE cops. Cops that live in the underworld with their head above water.
Yeah. Right.
These cops and the prosecutors that work for them want you and I to believe that they don't drink the beer they buy, and instead empty the bottles in the urinal. The weird thing is that I never hear the bottles being emptied.
So let's jump to the chase. My client ends up getting busted along with several other girls and alleged pimps. She is charged with prostitution and her case is assigned to the human trafficking division. They are a group that, at best, gives tough love in exchange for favorable testimony.
The Harris County District Attorney Office Human Trafficking Division is also that group that runs SAFE (Survivors Acquiring Freedom and Empowerment) Court, which is a pretrial intervention court program for girls with prostitution charges that are between the ages of 17-25, arrested in Harris County, and charged with prostitution, for starters. The Harris County Human Trafficking Division knows next to nothing about their own program. They are rude and lazy.
I told the ADA from the get-go that my client is not a victim of human trafficking, she was not forced to have sex, and she was not forced to have sex for money. The human trafficking game involves lots of disbelief. The ADA does not believe my client. I try to not believe my client at first. I want her to be consistent. I become convinced. The ADA still does not believe.
Let's talk about what going to court looks like. My client shows up on time for her docket (her docket time, not mine). She then waits. I show up, and we wait. We wait and wait and wait. What are we waiting on? We are waiting on the human trafficking prosecutor. Where is she? She tells me she is running from court to court. Of course, I frequently see her having conversations with her girlfriends in the hallway.
This going on for hours every month. Not only that, but the ADAs are kicking my client back to the home court prosecutor and then back to the human trafficking division.
Finally, FINALLY, after 6 months they finally get my client into an evaluation to see if she will be accepted into SAFE Court. My client shows up and does what she is supposed to do.
At the next setting, the ADA shows up THREE HOURS LATE. In the interim, I let her know that I am waiting. She tells me she is on her way. An hourish later I email her to let her know I am still waiting, and it's incredibly rude to me and my client to make us wait all this time every single month.
She shows up sits down and makes a giant shitshow. She tells me my client didn't show up to her meeting, which she did.
Next month the ADA shows up and says my client wasn't approved for the SAFE Court program, and she was.
The next month, the ADA drops off a dismissal form and leaves without saying anything.
I am pretty sure she dismissed the case because she wanted to save her ass after I made a stink and the coordinator and probation were backing me up.
I guess we will never know. Case Dismissed.
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