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Human Trafficking in Wyoming 2017-2020

TRAFFICKING IN WYOMING

Overview of 2017-2020 Cases

Fast Facts

  • In 2013 Wyoming became the 50th state to outlaw human trafficking (Polaris).

  • 2,407 sex offenders in the state of Wyoming (Safehome.org).

  • Of 43 methamphetamine cases in Wyoming in 2019, 10% are Human Trafficking cases

  • The top 3 venues for trafficking in Wyoming are: strip clubs, hotel’s, and other venues (Office of Women’s Health).

  • Per 100,000 children, 46.16 are sexually abused in Wyoming (Safehome.org).

  • According to Safe Home Project, Wyoming received a C grading for their sex trafficking laws; receiving their weakest grading in criminal provisions addressing demand and criminal provisions for traffickers.

Wyoming Trafficking Cases

2017

  • Cheyenne, WY

Angel King (pictured above) facing up to 10 years imprisonment received 5 years of supervised probation in March 2017. She was convicted on one count of possession of child pornography of her daughter who was a minor. Her boyfriend was convicted of “one count of third degree and three counts of second degree sexual abuse of a minor” (KGAB).

  • Lander, WY

On April 3, 2017, Charles Patrick Jeffery was sentenced to 40 months of imprisonment and 10 years of supervised release for the possession of child pornography. He was later, in July 2020, charged and plead guilty to engaging in sexual acts with a minor child from 2015-2016. A grand jury added charges pertaining to two other victims from an indictment in 2019.

Sunset, UT, Wyoming, & Denver, CO

Ryan A. MacFarlane (pictured above), of Sunset, UT, provided transportation to a teenage runaway from Utah to Denver. In doing so, he sexually assaulted her, and to make money for “gas and places to stay”, MacFarlane instructed and attempted to force the survivor to traffick herself out to truck drivers at various stops along the I-80 route to Denver. The girl would ask the drivers for rides, however each driver refused, and she would tell MacFarlane they declined “her (sexual) requests” (Tribune Media Wire). MacFarlane is facing “aggravated human trafficking, human trafficking of a child, rape, object rape, forcible sodomy, kidnapping and unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- to 17-year-old” charges along with various drug-related misdemeanors (Tribune Media Wire).

  • FBI Operation Cross Country: Wyoming

Of 84 minors rescued and 120 traffickers arrested during a country-wide operation, 17 minors were rescued from Colorado and Wyoming. 4 pimps were arrested for trafficking minors and 18 were arrested for seeking to purchase sex with children.

2018

Cody Sanderson, 26 Hunter Brackett, 26 Alexis Page, 23 Sandra Page, 23

  • Casper, WY

In October, during an undercover investigation, Casper police made contact via an online ad with the above women. They coordinated to meet the women to have sex in exchange for money, as well as agreeing to the distribution/sale of marijuana, THC products, and narcotics.

  • Cheyenne, WY

  • Following a human trafficking operation, Cheyenne PD arrested two women who were potentially victims of prostitution and/or human trafficking and five men who were soliciting.

  • Wyoming

Wyoming State professor was found guilty on the charges of posession of child pornography. He was sentenced to 5 months of supervised release and time already served, which he is required to follow returning to his home country: China. From an online tip, police searched Cai’s home, finding hundreds of files of child pornography on a hardrive.

  • Sweetwater County, WY

  • In search for a vehicle (pictured above) potentially carrying two underage girls at risk of sexual assault, Wyoming Highway Patrol was notified by staff at Little America Hotel of David Peter Vier, a former Everett, Washington Paramedic and Firefighter, arriving in a vehicle which fit the description. After law enforcement officials found contents in his vehicle which would be used to aid the perpetrator in assaulting the teenagers. The girls were taken into protective custody and the suspect was arrested.

2019

  • Riverton, WY

  • After abusing a toddler and distributing the recordings of the abuse to various individuals, 27 year old, Justin David Brown, plead guilty on two counts of production of child pornography, and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Along with him, 3 other men were charged with distribution and production of child pornography, and the enticement of a minor.

  • Casper, Wyoming

  • Robert William Cotter, 35, of Casper was sentenced on July 17 for production of child pornography. Cotter received 17 years six months of imprisonment to be followed by lifetime supervised release He also was ordered to pay $2,500 restitution, a $100 special assessment and a $500 special assessment according to the Victims of Sex Trafficking.

  • Cheyenne, WY

  • Via an informant and a craigslist ad, police arrested 15 men on charges of solicitation in a sting which “..took place in Cheyenne County, Deuel County and Scotts Bluff County” (StarHerald). Of the 15 individuals arrested, 13 were in Cheyenne at the time of their arrest.

2020

  • Cheyenne, WY

  • Via an informant and a craigslist ad, police arrested 15 men on charges of solicitation in a sting which “..took place in Cheyenne County, Deuel County and Scotts Bluff County” (StarHerald). Of the 15 individuals arrested, 13 were in Cheyenne at the time of their arrest.

*Casper, Wyoming

Connor William Biggs Farley and Ray Donald Lucero, Jr., "knowingly used, persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct,"the agents found six images and two videos involving the boy and probably Farley. Willden probably received the videos on his Google account on Sept. 13. Two of the images showed the victim asleep next to probably Lucero.

https://oilcity.news/crime/2018/02/07/man-arrested-human-trafficking-sexual-servitude/

https://kgab.com/meth-involved-in-majority-of-cheyenne-drug-cases-in-2019/

https://polarisproject.org/press-releases/wyoming-becomes-50th-state-to-outlaw-human-trafficking/

https://www.safehome.org/data/registered-sex-offender-stats/

https://kgab.com/cheyenne-woman-gets-probation-for-child-porn/

https://sharedhope.org/PICframe9/reportcards/PIC_RC_2019_WY.pdf

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/otip/wyoming_profile_efforts_to_combat_human_trafficking.pdf

https://humantraffickinghotline.org/state/wyoming

https://www.wyomingnewsnow.tv/content/news/Cheyenne-Police-make-several-arrests-following-prostitution-sting-475194133.html

https://starherald.com/news/local_news/fifteen-men-charged-in-three-counties-in-solicitation-sting/article_7862c2eb-b45d-5d47-820c-dfd06be22f02.html

https://oilcity.news/crime/2018/10/22/4-arrested-in-casper-prostitution-investigation/

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wy/pr/sentencings-april-3-april-5-2017

https://www.wyodaily.com/story/2019/09/26/news/four-arrested-in-child-porn-bust/9753.html

https://laramielive.com/fbi-17-children-rescued-4-pimps-caught-in-colorado-and-wyoming/

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/otip/wyoming_profile_efforts_to_combat_human_trafficking.pdf

https://collegian.com/2019/06/category-news-eight-arrested-in-i-25-human-trafficking-investigation/

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