Posted: Mar 12, 2012 9:08 PM CDTUpdated: Mar 12, 2012 9:30 PM CDT
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -
It's one of the biggest, most expensive trials you have probably heard very little about.
More than two dozen Somali men from Minnesota are charged with sex slavery, trafficking young Somali girls from Minnesota to secret brothels and hotels here in Nashville and other places.
The case includes more than 15,000 documents as 29 Somalis were accused of basically kidnapping young girls from middle schools and high schools in Minnesota.
But the whole case broke right here in Nashville after a routine traffic stop.
Officials say the suspects took girls as young as 12 years old and sold them as sex slaves sometimes to 10 different men in a day. They are accused of using a Rodeway Inn on Murfreesboro Road, a Super 8 on Royal Parkway and an apartment in Nashboro Village as their brothels.
The men are also accused of videotaping themselves having sex with 12-year-old girls and then sending them to potential customers in Nashville, as well as robbing a safe of $120,000 and stealing a car.
So, even though the men allegedly forced the girls into slavery in Minnesota, and although they all live in Minnesota, it was a case going nowhere until a Nashville traffic stop.
Then, it came to the attention of then U.S. Attorney Ed Yarbrough.
"If a crime is being committed in Nashville, and it's a federal crime, and it's an ongoing conspiracy, then it needs to be prosecuted irrespective of where else it's happening," Yarbrough said.
Next week, 15 of the 29 Somali men are set to go on trial.
And although the men have American nicknames like "Fat Boy," "Homer," "Shorty" and "Cash Money," they have insisted on being supplied English language interpreters.
And something else has turned the stomachs of anti-sex slavery advocates. The alleged sex slavers have asked for Muslim prayer breaks every day of the trial.
"I'm wondering if these traffickers, while they were selling the girls for sex all day long, did they stop to give three prayer breaks throughout the day? I highly doubt it," said Colette Bercu, from Franklin's Free For Life Ministries.
It is highly unusual for 15 people to stand trial at the same time like this, but not a single person has agreed to testify against anyone else. Whether it's cultural or gang motivated, no one is turning evidence for the state.
The penalties for these alleged crimes vary from 10 years to life in prison.
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