Alex Campbell, 45, of Glenview, Ill., a
former northwest suburban massage parlor owner was sentenced today to
life in federal prison for various crimes including sex-trafficking,
forced labor, harboring illegal aliens, confiscating passports to
further forced labor and extortion involving four foreign women whom he
mentally and physically abused while forcing them to work for him, the
Justice Department announced today.
The defendant, who operated the Day and Night Spa on Northwest
Highway in Mt. Prospect, Ill., used violence and threats of violence to
force three women from the Ukraine and one from Belarus to work for him
without pay and, at times, little to no subsistence between July 2008
and January 2010.
Campbell, also known as “Dave” and “Daddy” and who called himself
“Cowboy,” was also ordered to pay approximately $124,000 restitution by
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman.
There is no parole in the federal prison system.
Campbell was convicted at trial in January of this year of three counts
each of forced labor, harboring illegal aliens for financial gain and
confiscating passports and other immigration documents to force the
victims to work and one count each of sex trafficking by force, and
extortion.
He faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and
a maximum of life on the sex-trafficking count alone, and the judge
also imposed maximum prison terms ranging from five to 20 years on each
of the remaining counts, to run concurrent with the life sentence.
“Alex Campbell abused women by violently coercing them into labor and
commercial sex. By working together with law enforcement and community
groups, those women were able to testify about that abuse,” said Thomas
E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil
Rights Division. “Today’s sentence is a victory not only for the
Department and the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force, but also
for those women who so bravely came forward and told the truth about
their exploitation.”
“If you treat human beings as property, to be branded, beaten, raped,
and sold, the law will punish you to the greatest extent possible,” said
Gary S. Shapiro, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of
Illinois.
“This sentence ensures Alex Campbell’s incapacitation, which will prevent him from victimizing other women.”
“The sentence handed down today sends a clear message to those who think
they can callously prey upon vulnerable women to turn a profit,” said
Gary J. Hartwig, Special Agent-in-Charge of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago.
“HSI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to
ensure that those who engage in human trafficking are held accountable
for their actions.”
Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart, whose sheriff’s police initiated the
investigation, said, “I am extremely proud of the effort and resolution
of all the agencies involved with the successful investigation,
conviction and now sentencing of such a violent individual.”
All four victims testified as government witnesses at trial, as well as
co-defendant, Danielle John, 25, who pleaded guilty before trial to two
counts of harboring illegal aliens for financial gain. She was sentenced
previously to three years’ probation.
In addition to the trial victims, the government presented
evidence that investigators learned of approximately 20 women that
Campbell victimized.
The trial showed that Campbell recruited and groomed foreign women
without legal status in the United States to become part of his
“Family,” which he claimed was an international organization that would
provide them with support.
He offered them jobs in his massage parlor, a place to live,
assistance with immigration, and lured each of them to enter into a
romantic relationship with him.
After gaining their trust, he forced the victims to get
tattooed with his moniker, which he said made them his property and
allowed him to stop paying them.
At the same time, he acquired the women’s passports and visas.
The women were forced to work long hours every day and do as
Campbell instructed them, and they were beaten and punished if they
disobeyed him.
Trial testimony established that Campbell confiscated passports and
identity documents from three of the victims, as well as harbored and
transported them to ensure their continued labor.
Campbell forced one victim to engage in commercial sex acts
with customers at various other massage parlors, but not at the Day and
Night Spa, which testimony showed he operated “cleanly” to avoid
problems with law enforcement.
He extorted another victim to pay him more than $25,000 to
leave the “Family” by threatening to send a sexually-explicit video
recording to her parents in Belarus.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation,
which was coordinated by the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force.
The task force, together with the Salvation Army Family and
Community Services STOP-IT Initiative Against Human Trafficking, operate
a toll-free hotline, (877) 606-3158, which victims of trafficking or
those with information about human trafficking can call for assistance.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diane
MacArthur and Steven Grimes and Special Litigation Counsel John
Richmond of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution
Unit.
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