Human Trafficking Ordinance Passes First Reading by Green River Council

Human Trafficking Ordinance Passes First Reading by Green River Council

GREEN RIVER — The Green River City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance amendment Tuesday night that addresses loopholes in the current state statues regarding human trafficking and prostitution.

The Council voted unanimously to approve the first reading. Councilman George Jost was absent from the meeting.

City Administrator Reed Clevenger said the issue first came to light during city council workshop in July . Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Michelle Hall from the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and Terri Markham of the nonprofit organization Uprising presented information regarding human trafficking and challenges to combat human trafficking due to loopholes in the state statutes.

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“In that process they also wanted to deal with looking at our ordinance and how we can input some areas that would allow us to handle prostitution aspects in that as well,” Clevenger said.

The current definitions do not address commercial sex acts that involve manual manipulation without sexual intrusion. After that workshop, City Prosecutor Bobby Pineda and Green River Police Chief Tom Jarvie worked to develop city ordinance language to address this concern.

“Basically, it allows to close some of the loopholes that has to do with sexual manual manipulation and sexual intrusion,” Clevenger said.

Councilman Robert Berg asked how the city amended the ordinance regarding law enforcement “going after” the person forced to do the sex work. He said that Markham had expressed concerns over this as well.

“One of the things [Markham] was concerned with was the way that the ordinance would be read that it would be that we go after both the owner of the shop, per say, and the person who was forced to do the work,” Berg said.

Clevenger said that they amended the ordinance to have flexibility depending on the situation.

“They included her advice on that,” Clevenger said. “There are certain levels within there that allow them to go after both depending on what it is.”

The Council will consider approval of a second reading during its next meeting on Tuesday, November 1.

The ordinance can be viewed below.