Effective Strategies to Investigate and Prosecute Labor Trafficking in the U.S.

Jane Anderson brings her expertise in prosecuting domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking to her role as an Attorney Advisor with AEquitas. Prior to joining AEquitas, Jane served as a prosecutor in Miami, Florida where she tried many of the state's first human trafficking cases. In her role as a founding member of the Human Trafficking Unit, Jane developed policies to better identify and provide necessary services to trafficking victims, while ensuring offender accountability through the use of digital evidence and creative charging decisions. Jane also served as a supervisor in the Domestic Violence Unit, where she trained new attorneys and oversaw the prosecution of domestic violence, stalking, and violations of protection orders. Throughout her career, Jane prosecuted felony-level crimes of all types, including homicide, kidnapping, and sexual assault. Currently, Jane’s responsibilities include serving as a member of the IACP technical assistance team and as ICF’s “field coach” for human trafficking prosecutors around the U.S. Jane graduated cum laude from American University, Washington College of Law and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Jessica Grisler is a member of the IACP Programs Team where she currently works on the Enhancing Law Enforcement Human Trafficking Task Force Operations Program to support the needs of ECM task forces through training and curriculum development. Previously, Jessica worked on IACP’s Leadership Services and Training Team where she provided logistical and programmatic organization to the leadership trainings for police executives. Before becoming a team member with the IACP, Jessica was a Communications Specialist at the Arlington County (VA) Police Department, where she assisted the Public Information Officer with inquiries from the media and public, coordinated community outreach events and safety campaigns, and worked closely with other county agencies. Jessica started her career as a Media Relations/Public Affairs intern with the Arlington County Police Department. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Delaware and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration at George Mason University.

Colleen Owens is an expert on human trafficking with over a decade of experience directing and implementing U.S. and international research and training and technical assistance projects funded by the U.S. Department of State, National Institute of Justice, and Bureau of Justice Assistance. She currently serves as a technical assistance provider with the national human trafficking training and technical assistance team, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and led by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in collaboration with AEquitas and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Through this work, she provides technical assistance and training and is involved in labor trafficking curriculum development for the federally funded human trafficking task forces. In addition to this work, Ms. Owens is the recent Founder and CEO of THE WHY, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating modern slavery, promoting and supporting sustainable and ethical design, and economically empowering survivors. Prior to founding THE WHY, she served as Senior Research Associate with the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center where she codirected an over $4.1 million portfolio of research on human trafficking in the U.S. and several foreign countries.

Amy Fleischauer, LMSW, is the Director of Survivor Support Services at the International Institute of Buffalo (IIB) and supervises a team of case managers and advocates working with nearly 500 survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence annually. Ms. Fleischauer serves as the co-facilitator of the Western District of New York’s Anti-Trafficking Task Force, a position she has held since its inception in 2007. In addition, Ms. Fleischauer serves as a project consultant for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) Trafficking Victim Assistance Program, providing training and technical assistance for organizations administering direct care to foreign-born survivors of human trafficking across the country. Ms. Fleischauer has represented the immigrant victim services perspective on the New York State Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, a position she was appointed to by Governor Cuomo in 2012. She also testifies as an expert witness on domestic violence-related trauma for state-level criminal cases. Ms. Fleischauer was appointed by Governor Cuomo as an inaugural member of the New York State Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team in 2012 and testifies as an expert witness on domestic violence-related trauma for state-level criminal cases. She was appointed to the New York State Office of Victim Services Advisory Counsel in 2017. She serves on the board of Freedom Network USA and is an active member of the New York Anti-Trafficking Network. Ms. Fleischauer has a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University and a certificate in Trauma Counseling from the University of Buffalo. She has specific expertise in program planning, multidisciplinary collaborative teams, and provides training to national audiences on the implementation of trauma-informed care within victim services programs.

Kristen McGeeney is a Project Manager in the Programs division of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and has been with the IACP for four years. She oversees the day-to-day programmatic, logistic, and financial details of several projects focused on providing innovative and victim-centered training and technical assistance (TTA) on human trafficking and gender-based violence to law enforcement and allied partners. Currently, she manages the National Human Trafficking Training & Technical Assistance Program for Enhanced Collaborative Model (ECM) Task Forces, which provides training on emerging techniques and best practices to support trauma-informed and victim-centered investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking; address core multidisciplinary task force operational needs; and build trust between persons subjected to  human trafficking and justice system personnel.  

Prior to joining the IACP, Kristen served as a Special Investigator with the University of Maryland Office of Civil Rights & Sexual Misconduct, as the Title IX Coordinator at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and as a police corporal at McDaniel College Department of Campus Safety, where she specialized in conducting trauma-informed investigations of gender-based violence. Kristen has been conducting law enforcement training on gender-based violence since 2012, and is a former trustee of the Rape Crisis Intervention Service of Carroll County, MD. Kristen is a graduate of McDaniel College in Westminster, MD and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she is violence prevention fellow with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.

Detective Megan Bruneau Zentner has been with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) for 20 years and is currently assigned to the Criminal Intelligence Unit.  Megan has been assigned as SPD’s grant-funded Human Trafficking Detective for over 10 years and is a Task Force Officer with Homeland Security Investigations (Seattle office).  She is dedicated to a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach to human trafficking cases and works to bring creativity and diligence to all investigations. This has allowed her to develop excellent relationships with fellow investigators, prosecutors, immigration attorneys and NGO service providers. Megan has provided professional training on human trafficking investigations to law enforcement agencies locally, nationally, and internationally at the request of the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and other agencies. As a patrol officer Megan worked at the West Precinct in downtown Seattle and was assigned to the VICE/High Risk Victims Unit for over 8 years.  Megan assisted the Street VICE Squad, Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit, multiple precinct Anti-Crime Team (ACT) Units, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on various operations. Prior to becoming a sworn police officer in 2006, Megan spent her first five years with SPD as a civilian employee with the Victim Support Team (VST), an on-scene crisis intervention advocacy program for domestic violence victims and their children. After starting as a volunteer and working in the office through the AmeriCorps program, Megan became the VST Supervisor from 2003 to 2005. Megan is a graduate of the University of Washington.

Detective Theresa Nietzel is assigned to the Narcotics & Intelligence Division within the Human Trafficking Unit for the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and also serves as the Program Director for the Western District of New York’s Human Trafficking Task Force & Alliance. Theresa has been working in law enforcement for 16 years, serving as a lead investigator of Human Trafficking investigations. Theresa Nietzel began her police officer career with the Town of Newburgh Police Department before becoming a Deputy Sheriff with the Erie County Sheriff’s Office in 2010.  

In 2019, Theresa was awarded the HSI Executive Director Award for Outstanding Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking as a Task Force Officer. In 2017, Theresa was awarded the Women in Federal Law Enforcement Partnership Award for her Outstanding Contribution as a State or Local Officer while serving as a Task Force Officer with Homeland Security Investigations on human trafficking investigations. After earning her Master’s Degree in Public Administration, she joined Medaille College as an adjunct professor. Theresa has also served in the United States Army Reserves as a Military Police Officer for 13 years.  

Sergeant Nick Odenath has been with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office for the past 19 years, including six years as a detective investigating human trafficking. Nick has also served in several other capacities with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, including custody and patrol services, court services, narcotics investigations, asset forfeiture, financial investigations, and 6 years as a SWAT operator. Nick has become recognized for his lead on two large-scale human trafficking investigations that resulted in successful human trafficking prosecutions and used organized criminal investigative techniques that were victim-centric and specifically focused on mitigating a victim’s need to testify against their traffickers. He has performed case debriefs and trainings on the topic of human trafficking throughout the United States. Nick has also spoken on several panels addressing victim services and investigative techniques related to human trafficking cases.  

In March 2020, Nick was promoted to Sergeant and currently works as a Watch Commander at the Ventura County Pre-Trial Detention Facility. Nick continues to provide human trafficking training and case consults for various local, state and federal agencies; serves on the Ventura County Human Trafficking Tack Force committee for outreach and training; and works with community providers focused on combatting human trafficking within Ventura County. Nick also serves as the President for the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.  

Jessie Plamp is a member of the IACP Programs Team where she currently works as the Project Coordinator on the Enhancing Law Enforcement Human Trafficking Task Force Operations Program to support the needs of ECM task forces through training and curriculum development. She previously worked as the Project Assistant on the BJA Enhanced Collaborative Model (ECM) Human Trafficking Task Force Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Program to support the needs of the local ECM task forces.  

Before joining the IACP Jessie worked as an Assistant Supervisor at Eye2Eye Optometry Office, overseeing staff and responding to the medical needs of patients. Jessie earned her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Michigan State University and Master of Arts in Forensic Psychology from George Washington University. During her Master’s Program she was an intern at The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), where she developed curriculum modules, using Power Point and Google Slides, on the profile of cybercriminals.  

Erin Albright, JD, has over 14 years of experience in the anti-trafficking and specializes in building organizational capacity and multidisciplinary collaboration through leadership, training, and consultation with service providers, law enforcement, task forces, and law makers. She is the co-Director of Project Roadmap, a federally funded program that provides technical assistance to DOJ funded human trafficking Task Forces. In 2016 Ms. Albright was awarded a three-year Visiting Fellowship with the US Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime where she focused on improving victim-centered response strategies, developing capacity building tools and trainings for labor trafficking, and building multidisciplinary collaboration to respond to human trafficking. Her previous experience includes positions as the Director of the New Hampshire Human Trafficking Collaborative Task Force, Regional Program Director for the private operating foundation Give Way to Freedom, and Data and Outreach Specialist for the Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit. She has served as the co-chair of the Freedom Network’s Policy Committee, and co-Chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Human Trafficking Committee. She is a graduate of Mary Washington College, and Boston College Law School, and a member of the Massachusetts Bar. In 2016 she received a Commendation from (former) New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, and formal recognition by ICE/HSI and Senators Jean Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte for her work on behalf of survivors and with the NH Collaborative Task Force.

Brittany DuChaussee is the Deputy Director of Special Prosecutions at the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General. In this position, DuChaussee prosecutes crimes against children including physical and sexual abuse, labor trafficking, sex trafficking and internet crimes against children. In 2019, she secured the first labor trafficking conviction in New Mexico since the adoption of a human trafficking statute in 2008. In 2018, DuChaussee received the Justice Pamela B. Minzer Outstanding Advocacy for Women Award for her work prosecuting cases which protect the most vulnerable populations in her community. Since 2014, DuChaussee has spent her career concentrating on violent crimes against women and children both, at the Office of the Attorney General and at the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Detective Scaramucci began his career in law enforcement in 2004 and was promoted to Detective in 2008 with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, investigating Crimes Against Persons.  Since initiating investigations in Human Trafficking in 2014, Detective Scaramucci has participated in John Suppression events, arresting over 450 sex buyers. Since 2015 he has conducted sting operations resulting in the arrest of approximately 135 individuals for Human Trafficking and related offenses, which lead to the identification of approximately 250 trafficking victims. Detective Scaramucci has worked both State and Federal investigation as a Task Force Officer with H.S.I., which has led to investigations and arrests throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has also lead and trained numerous agencies throughout the U.S. on how to conduct these operations, along with operations targeting Illicit Massage Parlors. Detective Scaramucci is certified in Courts of Law as a Subject Matter Expert in Human Trafficking. He is further employed as a consultant for the Polaris Project, and Collective Liberty, training more than 278 agencies throughout the 29 states, 11 federal agencies, branches of the U.S. Military, the Mongolian Federal Police and Prosecutors Offices, along with providing technical support for their Human Trafficking Operations and Investigations.

Kate Crisham is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Terrorism and Violent Crime Unit in the Western District of Washington, where she serves as her office’s Human Trafficking Coordinator and prosecutes a wide variety of violent crimes, including human trafficking, forced labor, and cases involving the sexual exploitation of children and adults. She is also the co-chair of the Washington Advisory Committee on Trafficking (WashACT) and represents the United States Attorney’s Office as a member of the Washington State Task Force Against the Trafficking of Persons. AUSA Crisham has given numerous presentations and trainings on human trafficking to both law enforcement and community organizations. AUSA Crisham was a law clerk to the Honorable Diana E. Murphy of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and a litigation associate at a large Chicago law firm before joining the Department of Justice in 2007. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Georgetown University Law Center.