Feds Drop All Charges in Global Horizons Human Trafficking Case
The DOJ released the following statement from Nanda Chitre, spokesperson for the Department of Justice:
“Today the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the human trafficking criminal prosecution against defendants inUnited States v. Orian, et. al. in Honolulu, Hawaii. The department moved for the dismissal based on an additional review of the evidence following the August 2011 dismissal inUnited States v. Sou. A team of attorneys and agents determined the government is unable to prove the elements of the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt, the high standard applied in criminal prosecutions, and that proceeding with the prosecution no longer serves the public interest. The dismissal is based on facts and circumstances specific to this case, applies to the criminal prosecution only, and does not apply to any ongoing civil litigation being conducted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”
“The Department of Justice is committed to identifying, assisting and seeking justice on behalf of human trafficking victims who have been trapped in some form of slavery, coerced labor, debt bondage or sex trafficking. Over the last three years, we’ve achieved significant increases in human trafficking prosecutions – including a rise of more than 30 percent in the number of forced labor and sex trafficking prosecutions, and we will aggressively continue to bring significant cases, ranging from single-victim domestic servitude cases to prosecutions that dismantle transnational organized criminal networks.”
The Aloun Farms case, also in federal court in Hawaii, imploded last fall after it came out in court that the lead prosecutor in the case had misstated the law in front of a grand jury. All charges were dropped mid-trial in that case. The same team of federal prosecutors had also been on the Global Horizons case.
Read our complete story on the dismissal.
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