The presenter met “Jane Doe” when she was a 13-year-old victim of human trafficking. It took almost two years of investigation, interviewing suspects, and collecting evidence until law enforcement arrested 170 men and women including her biological mother. There were over 50,000 pages of social media evidence with thousands of chats, pictures, and videos documenting her abuse. At the center of all this evidence was one little girl who needed to be protected. One of the teams’ biggest concerns was keeping Jane Doe safe and her identity protected. The team used the pseudonym “Jane Doe” in every single filing with the Court. They redacted the evidence to make sure that her privacy was protected and that she was safe before the prosecution began. Once the discovery process began, the presenter filed almost 100 protective orders to keep her identity hidden from the public. This included editing out every piece of information that could be used to identify her. This presentation will help prosecutors, law enforcement, and other allied professionals prepare for a human trafficking case. It will provide tips and ideas on how to prepare voluminous digital evidence for court while protecting your victim. The presenter will discuss the things she learned, what she would do differently, and some of the real difficulties she experienced moving forward. She will also talk about her trauma and how it influenced the case as it went through the criminal justice system.
Trigger Warning: This presentation contains information (written, spoken, or visual) that may be triggering or (re)traumatizing to attendees.
Lorena Vollrath-Bueno is a subject matter expert in human trafficking with almost two decades of prosecutorial experience. In 2021, she was awarded the Florida Missing Children’s Day Commissioner’s Award for Meritorious Service in “Operation Stolen Innocence,” one of the country’s largest investigations and prosecutions of the sex trafficking of a single child.