Photo: Hon. Amy C. Martoche, Judge, Human Trafficking Intervention HUB Court, Buffalo, N.Y.
CLE, June 26, 2018, Buffalo, N.Y.
Nearly 150 attorneys, judges, physicians, probation officers, treatment providers and interested citizens crowded into the Ceremonial Courtroom in the Erie County Court House on Tuesday, June 26 for a three-hour presentation on human trafficking in Western New York.
The program, organized by the Hon. Amy C. Martoche, a Buffalo City Court Judge who runs the local Human Trafficking Intervention HUB Court, explored the problem, analyzed the law and revealed recent dynamics - including the fact that three-quarters of the victims/ survivors of human trafficking in WNY are addicted to opiates.
Judge Martoche told the audience that 96 percent of the individuals she has seen in her court since the Human Trafficking Court opened in October 2013 were native-born Americans, dispelling the myth that human trafficking mainly impacts easily-undocumented immigrants. Additionally, she said that the percentage of opiate-addicted victims has risen dramatically, increasing from fewer than 50 percent in 2014 to 75 percent in 2017. Judge Martoche said that sometimes a young person is hooked on heroin by the person who intends to traffic her or him, and other times it is the addiction that leads the individual, usually female, to the trafficker in the first place.
Photo: Dr. Gale R. Burstein, M.D., Erie County Commissioner of Health
Several panels of experts, including prosecutors and defense attorneys, physicians, law enforcement officials and advocates, presented throughout the afternoon.
Photo: Hon. E. Jeanette Ogden, J.S.C., Chair, Eighth Judicial District Gender and Racial Fairness Committee
Judge Martoche's court is one of 11 Human Trafficking Intervention Courts established statewide to help ensure that perpetrators are held accountable and victims/ survivors receive the help they need. More information.
Photo: View from the balcony of the Ceremonial Courtroom, Erie County