OKLAHOMA CITY - OKC PD arrest two people for allegedly trying to use their children for prostitution at truck stop! A truck driver called the police after he said a 16 yr old girl knocked on his window and asked if he wanted company. Officers stopped an SUV in the parking lot of the Petro Truck Stop at 20 Martin Luther King Ave. and found the pair with six children ranging from 9 to 17 yrs old.

Oklahoma District Attorney David Prater released the couple saying it was a "misunderstanding". Often police and prosecutors are challenged with the difficult task of finding the evidence needed or getting the victims to cooperate with a collaborating testimony that can be used in court. When victims fear for their safety, they seldom come forward with the truth during initial interviews with law enforcement.

Read more about the case here and here...

Taylor was busted on May 6 after Bronx cops rescued the petite runaway forced into prostitution from her alleged "bad ass" pimp, 36-year-old Rasheed Davis. The ex-linebacker admitted paying a hooker $300 for sex, according to a criminal complaint against Davis, who was hit with a sex trafficking charge in Manhattan Federal Court last Friday. In an interview with The Daily News, the baby-faced teen insisted Tuesday that she and Taylor "definitely had intercourse" - and that he paid her $300 in cash when they were done. "If he's saying we didn't, that's not true," she told the News. The curly-haired, teenager recounted again how Taylor's condom "got stuck inside" and how he told her not to worry about getting pregnant because "he was fixed." "He had to put his fingers inside me to get it out," she said. "I got it over with as quickly as I could. Afterward, all he said was turn off the TV before you leave."

Read more...

• Lawrence Taylor's teen victim texted 'Help me!' to hero uncle who called police
• Lawrence Taylor paid me $300 for sex, but I don't want to 'ruin his reputation,' teen hooker says
• Lawrence Taylor rape defense: I didn't touch teen hooker, I touched myself, says ex-Giant

Theresa Flores shared her story at the OATH conference in Norman last week. She said when she was 15-year-old, she was date raped by a young man in her school. Flores said days later the young boy produced an envelope with pictures of the encounter inside. She said the boy told her she would have to "earn them back" or otherwise, he would show them to her parents and even her father's boss. Flores said she was from a Catholic home and felt she was to blame for no longer being a virgin. For the next two years, she was forced to have sex with hundreds of men. She has written a book about her experiences that is available on the OATH web site. Read about Teresa Flores story at News9.com or watch the video below to hear more about the recent OATH Conference, and listen to Teresa's story in her own words...

Women and children sold for sex and labor and some of them end up dead. A former Oklahoma foster child talks about how she got caught up is sex trafficking, right here in Oklahoma. An Oklahoma native says she was she was smuggled to Las Vegas and sold for sex in California, Florida, North Carolina, New York and many other states across the country. Recently, advocates from Oklahomans Against Trafficking Humans (OATH) met for a conference in Norman, Oklahoma to better educate parents, law enforcement and service providers and advocates about the issue of human trafficking.

Read the complete article and watch the video at Fox23.com

Police report that at least 1 in 5 girls being prostituted at our truck stops are under the age of 18. Trapped in a lifestyle of servicing men that are often old enough to be their grandfather in this horrific form of "modern slavery". Watch the video at KOKH-TV Oklahoma City to hear from one of Oklahoma's top law enforcement officers from the OKCPD Predator Unit describe the problem that we have here in Oklahoma.

Estimates range form 450,000 to 2 million runaways each year in the US! Although half return, many times only to runaway again, studies indicate that an estimated 300,000 of these kids each year are coerced into trading their young bodies for a place to stay, food or drugs. These children are often running away from difficult home situations, abuse or neglect... only to discover that life on the streets is much more abusive, much more demanding, much more demeaning... their search for love and safety is used against them by predators that exploit there sexuality in the commercial sex industry. 

To survive, these teenagers convince themselves that they are not victims; they see themselves as surviving a very difficult life. Finding them, working with them, rescuing them from this lifestyle is not easy... and sadly, only a few people around the country are even trying. However, some are reaching them... some are getting through and helping these kids turn their lives around. 
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/us/27runaways.html?hp