Sex trafficking survivor: 'We have a lot of work to do,' urging legislative change

LANSING, Mich. — A dark past, filled with an abusive home and multiple rapes before the age of 13, Ruth Rondon shared her experience before a joint committee of lawmakers Thursday at the Capitol with a goal of sparking change.

Between choking back tears, Rondon shared her nearly 20-year experience in the human trafficking world, withholding few details to the captive audience and lawmakers. She said she grew up in a home where her mom was beaten and her father was an alcoholic. The 65-year-old woman described what’s now identified and known as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, and how those are linked to how she got entrenched in the seedy underbelly of human trafficking.

“History will repeat itself if you don’t understand it,” Rondon said.

Rondon was raped at 10 years old. She described the abuse that ensued after telling her parents about what happened; her father beat and belittled her when he learned about what happened to his daughters, she said. Rondon said she was raped again at 12 years old, but didn’t disclose the details to her parents out of fear of what might follow.

The third rape, however, she was unable to hide from her parents or anyone else in the community. Rondon described a gangrape by grown men who had previously bought her beer. She said after the rape, she was taken to the hospital by ambulance where she said the police interrogated her “as if she was the bad guy.”

At this point in Rondon’s life, she said she was taken to a mental hospital. When she got out, she met what she described as her hero – a boyfriend who got her hooked on heroin and was thrusted into the world of sex trafficking. She said her boyfriend would beat her and then apologize. Each time Rondon would forgive him and the abusive cycle continued.

“I jumped out of windows to avoid beatings,” she said. “What kind of little girl dreams of a life like that.”

After a life of in and out of the hospitals, for injuries and infections related to her lifestyle, Rondon said she finally ended up in jail where she cleaned up her act. When she got out of jail, using what little money she had from a lawsuit, she said she mustered the courage to file and win against a methadone clinic owner who sexually abused her in return for her medication. Rondon said she moved in with her mom and got her GED and a job.

“If it wasn’t for my family, especially my two sisters, and my therapist, I wouldn’t be here today,” she said while holding back tears.

After relapsing one time, Rondon said her mom came to a known drug house to bring her back. Her mom’s actions, “proved to me that my life was worth saving,” she said.

Rondon described a life full of mistrust in authority figures: police, clergy, hospitals, and even her family. That broken bonds with people led her to get stuck in the cycle. She said she wants mandated change from the state, and it can start with small steps like signs in medical offices.

“I used to work for the Kent County Health Department and some of the clients that we had, I knew that they were being trafficked,” she said. “If we had signs in the clinic that said ‘you are safe here’ or if you lost your documents or they had been stolen, let us know and we can help.”

A simple sign, Rondon said, could foster a conversation that could lead to disclosure of more information that could spark a change in someone’s life.

“I went into the infectious disease clinic just a few years ago for a cure of Hepatitis C. If I would have seen a sign on the door that said, ‘you are safe here’ I would have felt stronger because when I went into that clinic, I ran into everybody that I was on the street with and I got scared. And that was just a few years ago,” Rondon said. “I know dang well there’s some victims that feel apprehensive of entering health care just like I did.”

In 2018, there were 283 reported cases on sex trafficking in Michigan. During the presentation, two FBI agents talked about the challenges they face while investigating human trafficking cases. Sue Lucas, one of the FBI agents, said human trafficking cases take up resources and few are resolved. She said changes in trends make it more of a challenge, especially when it comes to the method of payment being used.

“I know how to track cash and credit cards,” she said. “But, it makes it harder when money is being transferred online using bitcoin or other online payments.”

The state created a human trafficking commission, aimed at taking a deeper look at the problems and where the fault lines are in communities. Kelly Carter, an assistant attorney general in the state Department of Justice, also serves as the executive director of the commission.

Carter said traffickers need to be held accountable and do to that, some changes need to be made in the penal code and other legislative actions can be taken to strengthen the support survivors feel. Among recommendations from the commission are some 30 bills aimed at codifying best practices. Criminal justice, training and funding are three prongs Carter said are being looked at to holistically make change.

Among the slew of changes, Carter said victims of sex trafficking should be granted immunity for people testifying in cases against their predators. A similar practice is in place for cases involving prostitution, Carter said.

“It seems like a logical extension that we take that type of immunity and provide it to human trafficking,” said Carter.

For Rondon, she said she will continue to share her message in hopes of helping others who may feel trapped in a similar situation like her own.

“I hope that people learn to look beneath the surface of band behavior and drug addiction, try and challenge that stigma. I mean, their all human beings behind these stories and they are wonderful,” she said. “Some of these people are born leaders but their leadership skills have been oppressed. If we can help them bring that out of them, look at what our whole country could become.”

She said over the years, she’s grown to love and trust other people and recognize that everyone may not be the way they present themselves to others. Rondon encouraged everyone to reflect on their own past experiences and potential trauma and begin to link everything together.

While strong enough to talk about her past now, Rondon said there are situations that are still hard for her to cope with, decades later.

“When I sit at home sometimes, I’ll watch the news and I’ll see a story about how a cop or somebody is going after a rapist and it’s hard for me because nobody was able to do that for me,” Rondon emotionally said. “I think a lot of people don’t believe that you can be forced or coerced into that kind of lifestyle but man oh man, the venerable people, they have ‘easy prey’ all over their forehead just like I did and a compassionate person would lean into that and maybe say a prayer for them but a predator would take advantage of that.”

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