My Story - Exposing Human Trafficking in America with David Solomon (Part 1) | Episode 133

My Story - Exposing Human Trafficking in America with David Solomon (Part 1) | Episode 133

Chapter Markers
0:00 The Reality of Human Trafficking
17:48 Trafficking Survivors Speak Out Against Grooming
27:35 Continuing Conversation on Human Trafficking

Human trafficking isn’t just an international crisis; it's happening right here in our own backyards. In this emotionally charged episode, we sit down with David and Amanda Solomon to expose the grim realities of human trafficking in the United States. David courageously shares his own harrowing experience as a survivor, uncovering the various insidious forms human trafficking can take, from sexual exploitation to labor trafficking, and even the shocking involvement of parents in exploiting their children for financial gain. We confront the unsettling trend of children being sold in supposedly safe spaces like hotel rooms and churches, and cast a critical eye on controversial legislation in California that classifies human trafficking of minors as a misdemeanor. Through David and Amanda’s personal testimonies and advocacy, we aim to shatter the misconceptions surrounding human trafficking and emphasize the urgent need for community action and stricter laws.

In another powerful segment, we amplify the voices of survivors who expose the dark underbelly of grooming within trusted communities such as churches and the entertainment industry. One survivor recounts the backlash faced for naming their trafficker, shining a light on the manipulative grooming tactics used by predators in positions of trust. We discuss the systemic failures that leave survivors vulnerable, including threats from law enforcement and a lack of sufficient legal consequences for traffickers. Wrapping up with an engaging discussion on the Voices for Voices® TV show and podcast, David and Amanda continue to lead the charge in promoting awareness and advocacy, urging listeners to become vigilant and proactive in the fight against human trafficking.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host and founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes. Voices for Voices is the number one ranked TV show and podcast where people turn to for expert mental health recovery and career advancement intelligence. Mental health recovery and career advancement intelligence. Our Voices for Voices show is all about teaching you insanely actionable techniques to help you prosper, grow yourself and self-worth and personal brand. So if you are a high achiever or someone who wants more out of life, whether mentally, physically or spiritually, make sure you subscribe to our show right now.

Speaker 1: 1:07

Wednesday. New episodes every Wednesday that focus on case studies, real-life examples, actionable tips and in-the-trenches reports and interviews from subscribers just like you. If that sounds like something that could help you grow personally or professionally, then make sure to join us by subscribing. So this episode we are going to delve into a topic, an area that we've touched on a little bit with our episode with Angel Dag that we filmed and aired and is still available on all our platforms last year, and that is human trafficking, sex trafficking. I think to some these are taboo things, that they only happen in certain areas, to certain types of people. This doesn't happen to me at home in my community. We can think about and talk about the Epstein situation of trafficking and having the island and bringing high-profile entertainers, politicians and the like to do, obviously, things that are not okay and it shouldn't be okay, no matter where we live.

Speaker 1: 2:42

So our guests today are David and Amanda Solomon, and David has such a powerful story to share, as well as Amanda supplementing that, so we'll get into a little bit of a bio on each of them so we can learn together more about David and Amanda. David Solomon has been a writer since he was 13 years old and has ghostwritten and done over 71 novels in total. That is awesome. He is a survivor of human trafficking and is most known right at this time for his speaking out on YouTube and TikTok about the subject of the Maddie Soto case in Florida. In Florida, david was taken January 12, 2012, from Oregon and escaped two weeks later from Canada, making it home on January 29, 2012. Since then, he has helped many police departments find missing children and help this from happening to other families as well.

Speaker 1: 4:07

Very powerful and also on our episode today is Amanda Solomon, and Amanda is new to the writing world and has been part of that for the past two years. The past two years, she has witnessed the abuse that David has endured from his traffickers in real time. She enjoys writing as a way of coping with things, especially her own trauma from sexual assault and rape she endured as a kid and teen. As a kid and teen, she, amanda, is a mother of Juan, who is an eight-year-old son who also enjoys the writing world. That's great, and wants to be a writer just like his parents. So, david, amanda Solomon, thank you for joining us on the show.

Speaker 2: 5:17

Are you there?

Speaker 1: 5:18

Here we are. Yeah, oh gosh. Thank you for joining us, David and. Amanda, thank you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, david. Can you? Can you start out by just talking about what is human trafficking to those that don't know?

Speaker 2: 5:40

well human trafficking is. There's different ways you can human traffic and the first one is very simple you take someone and you know you use them for sexual needs. And then there's a second one where you use them for labor trafficking. And then there's a third that we're seeing a little bit of and that's kind of what we're going to get into a little bit. Today Human trafficking is seen as a problem in Africa and other countries, but not seen in the US. That's what people claim. And then we see this wide awakening of children just going missing every day and Amber Alert's just going crazy and I think people are waking up to a reality that kids are being sold on the black market for sexual purposes, to predators in hotel rooms, churches.

Speaker 2: 7:04

But the third part of human trafficking is very unique and that is the saddest part.

Speaker 2: 7:12

That is when a parent is involved in human trafficking and labor trafficking, and what that is is a parent contacting a trafficker to make money on their own children so they can have a car or a home or some other sort of luxury, and that is becoming more and more and more common.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Labor and human trafficking is very big right now in the United States, human trafficking more so, where you know kids go missing and then it's reported they're in a hotel room, or maybe they're at a friend's home and they're sold for money for an amount of time. Now the movies paint human trafficking as the cartel doing it, and that's not how it works. Or they could be a pastor, a priest, a person of religion or a person of power that abuses that power and tries to manipulate that person against their parents if they're a minor, which we're seeing in real time. It is one of the biggest problems right now and our country is mostly silent on it right now. In fact, a few weeks ago, california passed a bill that human trafficking a minor is a misdemeanor and you would not go and be charged with a felony for human trafficking a minor.

Speaker 1: 9:07

To give you an idea, oh my gosh, that is so alarming. The government, a state, the individuals would actually come together and make that a misdemeanor. It is just appalling. What do you think is in your experience? What do you think is behind maybe those, let's say, the California law that was just put in place? Do you think it's a lack of education? Do you think they're being paid from the traffickers?

Speaker 2: 9:51

I think that there's a lot of corruption, just tons of corruption in California, you know human trafficking is so rampant. But also education yeah, because no one's speaking out, and so you got it in.

Speaker 1: 10:14

Hollywood is there and we see what's going on with Pete Diddy and all of that mess, and so it is a lack of education on what's going on in the world going on in the world, and that's why I think it's so important to have you be able to share your voice on as many platforms and reach as many people, because that is I mean, that's alarming to me. I didn't know that that was occurring at a government level, that laws were basically putting in place like, oh okay, it's a misdemeanor, it's just like a slap on the wrist. It's not something that we're going to take serious and say you know what? This person should not be let out in the community or anywhere ever again, and that's what we're seeing not only in California.

Speaker 2: 11:13

there are other states doing it too. When I was taken, the state where I was taken Oregon unfortunately has a worse rule about it and that's why I was taken, because traffickers live in Oregon, they commit crimes in Oregon because of its law and it's very hard to prosecute human trafficking in the state of Oregon Very and the traffickers.

Speaker 1: 11:51

I think and I'm assuming, so I don't have any knowledge to back this up I think maybe some individuals again, they think that this happens, like you said, it happens in Africa and other places. It doesn't happen here in the US, and that there are individuals who are doing the trafficking in the US it's not always somebody in Africa and another country, and I think that by itself is alarming. We could be living next door or across the street from a person who is leading a trafficking business and that is very scary.

Speaker 2: 12:39

And you want to look at the signs of grooming.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Good.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Grooming means you're preparing the victim. Grooming means you're preparing the victim and that is very important to talk about, because that is what's going on in real time right now. And traffickers love to groom their victims, the kids, whether it be on Roblox, whether it be on YouTube, whether it be on any other platform, to get kids' attention, to tell them they matter. But then they sort of twist the truth. I'll give you an example. My trafficker has a video on YouTube called Harvest Interview and he talks about how he talks to minor children every day on the web, on the internet, and private messages them about pornography and cutting and other things behind parents' backs and cutting and other things behind parents' backs. And he goes even more into detail about how he wants to play a role in the children's lives before he meets them. It's called grooming, and so he puts emphasis on oh, how's your day? What did you?

Speaker 2: 14:05

do today, and then those topics begin to get a little bit more personal, right? You have kids that don't want to tell their parents about puberty and all these subjects. So they go meet them. Let's say they're an author and they're so excited They've been talking to them every day. Hey, this famous person wants to talk to little old me. I'm just a kid. I got to meet a mom, dad. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah, they're Christian. That should be cool. And that is how real predators work. In fact, they're right in front of you.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Yeah, they're right in plain sight.

Speaker 2: 14:57

Yes, and this person and others like them, and that's why I spoke out on the Matty Soto case. These people prey on children for months online. I speak from experience because I may have been an adult but I also was groomed by this person and I was in a most vulnerable place. I was homeschooled. I was, you know, I am autistic. At the time I was very naive. I lived in the country. You know. I was raised by my mom. I just was not open minded to the world and I was raised Southern Baptist to the world and I was raised Southern Baptist and you know, my mom found out she had two months to live and this individual you know I looked up to. I've known him since I was 11 years old and he had been grooming me since the age of 11.

Speaker 2: 16:07

I go stroke for him. So have other kids. You want to talk about labor trafficking. Famous authors take advantage of children and they don't pay them and they have those kids write their books Just so they can, you know, not pay them. That's labor trafficking. And then you know they build the kid up and you know, then the parent gets involved. Oh, shut up.

Speaker 2: 16:38

You know the kid's having his moment of fame. That's labor trafficking, wow. And that's a great example of what is going on in real time, and parents need to be so aware, especially now, um, of who their kids are talking to, on roblox and minecraft and all these other platforms that were not there when, when I was a kid, that predators prey on. You know they want to know your kid. It's their job to get to know your kid. It's their job to come into your kid's life and be invited into your kid's home, whether that be a physical home or you know their home on roadblocks, where they get close and they start asking questions and then you know your kid goes missing and this is how it starts, and if parents don't pay attention to the signs, it's going to be too late.

Speaker 2: 17:48

I've had so much backlash, speaking out on what happened to me, and I think the real reason is because I named their name and then they came out and they said, oh yeah, we took you but, to quote them, well, we took you because we thought you were a minor and we weren't going to give you back to your mom. And that's a powerful statement for these people to make that they take kids. They think it's fun to take kids who are minors and not give them back to their parents. Think about statements like that and then pay attention to what's happening in your surroundings, in people that are around your children, and also the shows they watch, because these writers they're they're writing shows right now that are targeting your children, to groom them and that is another powerful example and it just blows my mind.

Speaker 1: 18:56

I know it's going to blow listeners' and viewers' minds and I'm glad you're getting into such transparent detail Because, yeah, from the celebrity side of things like, oh, you know this individual or the, they want to meet me and they get a picture and they're like, oh, and then the friends are like you got to meet so and so and, and then, like you said, it's just, it's a grooming over a period of time. Uh, I know a misnomer I have and is that it doesn't happen or that it happens overnight. That it's, you know, one day the person's there and then the next day they're not. That this is like you said, it's over a course of time and it could be a coach, it could be a pastor, could be a writer, it could be an actor, an entertainer, and those individuals, just you know, over over time, once they start checking in, like a parent will, like you said, how are you doing, how was your day?

Speaker 1: 19:56

You know, then they start to get more comfortable and with having those ill intentions of kind, of their end game of you know, it might be six, eight, six, eight months, whatever their timeline is, and the child, any individual who is being groomed. They don't know that, they just think it's another conversation, and especially if it's somebody that's famous, then it's all the more reason some think that it's okay to continue having those interactions because they feel like they may get something in return and to hear about the authors and how they're having these children. Individuals write the books for them and not pay them and then probably use, you know, blackmail material and, like you know, don't go tell somebody. I think it's again. I said appalling earlier, but I mean this is truly appalling and it needs to be looked at and addressed at the highest level, not like California, by making it a misdemeanor, by actually increasing the penalty for individuals that are a part of this.

Speaker 2: 21:23

I agree. And you know, the other thing is, after the trafficking happened and that's the other thing that's not been addressed a lot I survived it, right. I speak for myself, but I also speak for others. After a time, go back to the trafficker, oh, and wonder if they did something wrong. Mm-hmm, and like I said, I was young, terrible things happened. I went missing for two and a half weeks. I made it back, but my trafficker was merciless and my mom bless her heart. He fought so hard and he manipulated a situation that not only affected me but affected other children at my church.

Speaker 2: 22:41

And because traffickers use the church and this is where it gets very, very cautious they can twist their crime. They, according to their own words in their own interview, what they did to me was not wrong. They were liberating me. And it's not wrong to talk to children on the internet. It's not wrong to take children, that's not wrong. It's not wrong to talk to children on the Internet. It's not wrong to take children. That's not wrong, it's not a crime. So therefore, no one needs to get arrested. I got away, I'm alive, everybody's fine. But and that's the police's words, but the reality of that is there were 200 other kids where I was and they are not fine. Of that is there were 200 other kids where I was and they are not fine and they were not fine and that's a harsh reality. But the law turns the other way for survivors. They don't want to hear survivors' stories, and so law enforcement not all law enforcement certain law enforcement threatened my wife actually, and me got a threatening email from one of the chiefs of police in Oregon.

Speaker 2: 24:10

And it was a very threatening email on me speaking out and they threatened and survivors don't speak out because they get threatened and abused. The reason I chose to speak out I have parents come to me all the time. I have people that know what I went through in the writing world and I got tired of hearing my trafficker taking kids or stories of parents that are trying to get their kids back from these people. And then, you know, he put out a book that had my mom in it in it, and then a book about me and a book about rape and trafficking children. And now we're crossing lines and admitting what we did in our own writing, but we're calling it Christian and we're putting it out to churches.

Speaker 2: 25:27

And now your churches are letting children read that and the churches aren't paying attention because, hey, it's a Christian author, he's cool, he's with God, we're fine, everything's good. And then your child gets groomed, not because of your church, but because of what your church is letting happen, because they're not paying attention. And so then, 10 years from now, your church is letting happen because they're not paying attention. And so then, 10 years from now, you're going to have another person like me that survives it from this person and the same thing's going to go on because no one's doing anything. And that's when I said enough is enough. And then I recognized another trafficker Stefan Stearns in the Matty Soto case as one of my traffickers and I had to speak out, not because of fame or fortune or I wanted people to know my story. I wanted people to know who these people are. Yes, because I am one out of 200 that day and that was one time, and according to this person, they've been doing this 11 years before that.

Speaker 2: 26:46

Oh so 200 kids one time you do the math and then all this person's books now are on trafficking and it's despicable and they've been doing this and they keep doing this and now their new book is going to literally talk about what me and my mom did, which was rescue victims, and he's going to try to paint that as evil. The new book comes out this summer and it's going to be made by him and a huge foundation on the East Coast. And I was speechless when he targeted what me and my mom did.

Speaker 1: 27:35

Hey, David, I got to jump in just on time. We're going to continue this conversation.

Speaker 2: 27:40

You're good, you're good Awesome.

Speaker 1: 27:42

You're good, great. Thank you so much to our guests, david and Amanda Solomon, for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. This is part one. Check in next week for part two of our conversation. This is Justin Allen Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, and please be a voice for you or somebody in need. © transcript Emily Beynon.