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South Dakota’s U.S. Attorney Tackles Sex Trafficking
ARLINGTON, VA. – In a bold move to combat child sex trafficking, U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson has been named a 2014 Pathbreaker Award recipient for his leadership in the fight against this heinous crime.
Johnson, the U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota, has taken a progressive approach to demand enforcement through broad collaboration and aggressive prosecution of buyers, establishing a broader federal engagement in combating demand for child sex trafficking.
At the request of Attorney General Eric Holder, Johnson was one of fifteen U.S. Attorneys selected to serve on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee from 2012-2013. He has prioritized the prosecution of cases involving violence against Native American women and children and human trafficking.
Johnson has overseen the prosecution of more than 25 human trafficking cases in five years, including three life-sentences and the federal prosecution of numerous men who attempted to purchase sex from trafficking victims. His office pursued the case of United States v. Jungers through the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, securing the critical decision that buyers of sex acts with minors are committing crimes of sex trafficking under the federal law.
“Brendan Johnson is a force of determination, initiative and skill that should leave buyers terrified to purchase sex with a minor in South Dakota,” Shared Hope International President and Founder Linda Smith said. “By creating a threshold for buyer accountability, he sets a national precedent that, if applied, will make significant strides in reducing tolerance for purchasing sex with a minor.”
Johnson and Marian Hatcher, Project Manager for the Sheriff’s Women’s Justice Programs at the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, will accept the award on November 7 during Shared Hope International’s JuST Conference in Washington, D.C. Congressman Frank Wolf (VA-10) is also a 2014 Pathbreaker Award recipient.
For more information, contact Taryn Offenbacher at (602) 818-3955 or taryn@sharedhope.org. Additional resources, including survivor comments, are available at vimeo.com/sharedhope/albums.
Key Facts
- State: South Dakota
- Category: Human Trafficking
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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