(NEW YORK) — Child sex trafficking victims implicated for crimes against their abusers are speaking out amid an ongoing push for laws that change how such cases are treated in the criminal justice system.
In 1995, Sara Kruzan was 17 when she was sentenced to life in prison for killing the man who she says began grooming her at the age of 11.
“I was an easy target for a man with disturbing intentions. From ages 13 to 16, I was a child sex trafficking victim who endured horrific abuse and rape at the hands of my trafficker and other adult males,” Kruzan told ABC News.
Kruzan would go on to spend nearly two decades in prison before her sentence was commuted twice — once in 2011 and once in 2013. She was released that year and was pardoned by California Gov. Gavin Newsom last July.
Since her release, Kruzan has dedicated her life to children who find themselves in the position she was once in — vulnerable, powerless and at the constant mercy of abusers.
Nearly 1,000 children were forced into sexual slavery in 2020, according to the Administration for Children Families. Victims often have a history of neglect, abuse and trauma. But in most cases, the abuse goes unreported.
In many cases, victims never return home. Only an estimated 1% to 2% of child sex trafficking victims are recovered, according to Erase Child Trafficking.
“The sex industry preys on vulnerability and marginalization,” said Yasmin Vafa, a human rights attorney who co-founded the nonprofit Rights4Girls. “And so those children who are marginalized by race and ethnicity, by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, by disability, by immigration status, by a whole host of factors. Those children are more likely to be exploited because they are vulnerable.”
In Wisconsin, 22-year-old Chrystul Kizer is facing a life sentence for killing the man who she says forced her into sex work.
Kizer met Randall Phillip Valor when she was 16 years old. She says Valor sexually abused her and recorded the acts. After a year of abuse, Kizer went to Valor’s home and shot him. She then started a fire and drove away in his car.
Kizer later admitted to detectives that she “had gotten upset and was tired of [him] touching her.” She was charged with multiple felonies, including first-degree homicide, and has since been released on bond.
In a groundbreaking decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Kizer may have the chance to be acquitted of all charges using a state law meant to provide immunity to victims of human trafficking.
Kizer’s defense argues that when she committed the murder, she was being trafficked and for no other reason would it have occurred, ABC News legal contributor Channa Llloyd said. The burden is now on the state to prove being sexually trafficked wasn’t a direct cause.
Kruzan said that trying child sex trafficking victims as adults is “another form of human rights violations.” She’s now part of an ongoing push to change laws around sentencing child victims of sex trafficking.
Backed by bipartisan representatives, one of them is “Sara’s Law” or “The Preventing Unfair Sentencing Act.” If passed, it would give judges discretion to hand down reduced sentences for child survivors and promote physical and psychological recovery for child sex trafficking victims.
Looking back at her case, Kruzan wishes that the justice system treated her with compassion.
“You know, trying to ask the right questions, to say, well, what happened to you? How did this happen? And then, how did the adults miss it?” Kruzan said.
(SYRACUSE, N.Y.) — Two men have been arrested in the slaying of 11-year-old Brexialee Torres-Ortiz, who was shot dead while walking home after buying milk near her home, authorities announced Thursday.
Two of the three suspects believed to be involved in the Jan. 16 shooting, an 18-year-old man and a 20-year-old man, were arrested Wednesday on charges including second-degree murder, Syracuse Police Chief Joe Cecile announced at a news conference Thursday. They were arraigned Thursday morning, Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said.
The third suspect, a 16-year-old, is known to police and is a resident at a juvenile facility in the New York City area, where he was placed by a family court judge, Fitzpatrick said.
He was “on a furlough from the facility” on the day Brexialee was killed, Fitzpatrick said.
“We will be addressing more information about him at such time he’s in custody,” he said.
Brexialee had just left a corner store that was about 100 yards from her apartment when she was shot by gunmen in a car who were firing at someone else, authorities said. A 19-year-old man was also shot at the scene and survived, the chief said.
Police zeroed in on the suspects after identifying the stolen car that the shots were fired from, the chief said.
Brexialee, president of her fifth grade class and part of her school’s high honors program, “was an extraordinary young lady,” the chief said Thursday.
“The stories we started to hear about her taking care of her classmates … [she was] their advocate so they could succeed the way she was succeeding,” Cecile said.
(NEW YORK) — An Illinois man has been arrested and charged for allegedly setting fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Tyler W. Massengill, 32, of Chillicoth, Illinois, is facing charges of malicious use of fire and an explosive to damage as well as attempt to damage, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois.
The charges stem from a fire that was reported late in the night on Jan. 15 at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Peoria, about 160 miles southwest of Chicago. After interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage in the area, investigators learned that a white pickup truck with red doors had parked adjacent to the building shortly before the blaze began and drove away just moments after, according to the complaint.
At approximately 11:20 p.m. CT that night, a man wearing a coat with a hood pulled up and possibly a face mask was seen walking up to the Planned Parenthood clinic “with a laundry detergent-sized bottle,” according to the complaint. The man “lit a rag on fire on one end of the bottle, smashed a window with an object, then placed the container inside of the … building” before “quickly” fleeing the scene “on foot,” the complaint stated.
According to the Peoria Police Department, no patients or staff were inside the Planned Parenthood clinic at the time of blaze. A firefighter sustained non-life-threatening injuries while attempting to extinguish the flames. Investigators quickly determined that the preliminary cause of the fire was arson, police said.
On Jan. 17, after receiving several tips, the Peoria Police Department linked the truck to Massengill. Police also obtained a booking photo of Massengill and found a Facebook account in his name, and the images from both “bear a likeness” to the man captured on surveillance video outside the Planned Parenthood clinic, according to the complaint.
On Jan. 23, a woman contacted local police to tell them that she had Massengill’s truck in her garage in Sparland, about 30 miles northeast of Peoria. She told police that, on Jan. 16, Massengill had requested to keep his white pickup truck in her garage and to paint its red doors white for $300, according to the complaint.
The woman said she last spoke with Massengill via Facebook on Jan. 18, when she asked him to come get his truck. She said he indicated that he had seen his truck on the news but told her: “I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it,” according to the complaint.
The FBI seized Massengill’s truck on Jan. 23, by which time the doors had been painted white. FBI agents also “recovered a paint grinder from the scene with red paint residue,” the complaint stated.
The following day, Massengill contacted the Peoria Police Department and said he wanted to speak about the Jan. 15 fire at the Planned Parenthood clinic. While meeting with investigators, Massengill initially denied responsibility for the blaze but ultimately admitted to breaking a window and placing a burning container inside the building. He also confirmed that he had asked someone to paint his truck white after the incident, according to the complaint.
Massengill told investigators that, approximately three years ago, he had a girlfriend in the Peoria area who became pregnant and had an abortion. He said she first told him about the abortion via telephone while he was working in Alaska, which upset him. On or around Jan. 15, Massengill said he heard or saw something that reminded him of the abortion, which upset him again, according to the complaint.
Massengill also told investigators that if his actions on the night of Jan. 15 caused “a little delay” in someone receiving abortion services at the Planned Parenthood clinic, it may have been “all worth it,” according to the complaint.
The Planned Parenthood location in Peoria, which had to be closed due to damage from the fire, offers medication abortion but is not a site for in-clinic procedures, according to Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
Massengill was taken into custody on Jan. 24. If convicted on all charges, he faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of at least five years and could be sentenced to as many as 40 years behind bars. The charges also carry up to three years of supervised release and a possible fine of up to $250,000, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice.
It was unknown whether Massengill had retained legal representation.
The incident at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Peoria happened just two days after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed comprehensive reproductive health care legislation into law that protects out-of-state abortion seekers and allows them to get an abortion. Illinois is among a number of U.S. states that have managed to enact legal reinforcements around abortions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.
Last week, the FBI announced that it is offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in the wake of a spate of attacks against reproductive health facilities across the country.
(MONTEREY PARK, Calif.) — The suspect involved in the Monterey Park shooting had no known connection to any of the victims that were killed in the shooting, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Police also confirmed that a total of three firearms registered to the suspect were recovered by detectives — along with a motorcycle that belonged to the suspect that authorities believe was a possible alternate getaway vehicle.
“As of today, based on interviews, investigators have not been able to establish a connection between the suspect and any of the victims,” Sheriff Robert Luna said in a statement following a press conference held on Wednesday evening. “The suspect was not married and was not romantically tied to any of the victims. According to witness accounts, the suspect has not frequented the location in the last five years.”
Three firearms registered to the suspect have so far been recovered by detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) Homicide Bureau, authorities say.
“The murder weapon recovered at the Alhambra scene was identified as a Cobray model CM11-9 (also known as Mac-10),” police said in a statement. “The weapon was not registered in the state of California and was purchased by the suspect on February 9, 1999, in the city of Monterey Park. The weapon used by the suspect to commit suicide inside the white van was identified as a Norinco 7.62 X 25mm pistol. The rifle recovered from the suspect’s residence in Hemet is a Savage Arms .308 caliber bolt action rifle.”
Monterey Park police officers also recovered a motorcycle — just one block from where the shootings took place — that was registered to the suspect.
Authorities believe it was strategically placed on the 200 block of South Garfield Avenue in Monterey Park as an alternate getaway vehicle.
“Investigators determined the motorcycle was parked at that location sometime on Saturday, just prior to the mass murder. Investigators believe it was placed there by the suspect as an alternate getaway vehicle,” police said.
The suspect had no recent criminal history but records show that he was arrested 33 years ago in 1990 for unlawful possession of a firearm.
“If people believe they have information that can help us with a motive in this case, please make sure you contact investigators of our Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. A lot of rumors out there, a lot of people sharing stories, but again, we will only put out there information that we have verified through facts and evidence,” Sheriff Luna concluded at the press conference.
(NEW YORK) — Jury deliberations resume Thursday in the trial of Sayfullo Saipov, the Uzbek native who took inspiration from the Islamic State group and drove a truck down the West Side Highway bike path, killing eight on Halloween 2017.
The jury deliberated for an hour or so Wednesday and appeared befuddled.
The defense, which did not call any witnesses, conceded during opening statements that Saipov carried out the attack but challenged the government allegation he did it to become a full fledged member of ISIS. The defense said Saipov did not want to join the terror group, he wanted to die a martyr.
Prior to adjourning for the day the jury sent the judge a note with three questions:
– Is the defense contending Saipov committed the truck attack but was charged with the wrong crime?
– If Saipov went to Syria, trained with ISIS and came back with an ISIS card, would he have been charged with the same crime?
– Let’s say we find Saipov not guilty of the truck attack because he wanted to join ISIS. Would he be re-tried for a different crime?
The judge expressed concern the questions sounded like conversations and not based on evidence.
The judge, prosecutors and defense attorneys will spend part of the morning deciding how to respond once the court reconvenes at 9 a.m.
(DUXBURY, Mass.) — A Massachusetts woman is facing charges in the deaths of her two young children and the injury of her baby, authorities said Wednesday.
Police received a 911 call on Tuesday evening, just after 6 p.m. ET, from a man who said his wife had attempted suicide by jumping out of a window at their house in Duxbury, a small seaside town about 30 miles south of Boston. First responders rushed to the home and located the woman, identified as 32-year-old Lindsay Clancy, whom they treated on scene before transporting her to a Boston hospital, according to Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz. Her condition was unknown.
First responders subsequently found three young children inside the home who were “unconscious with obvious signs of severe trauma,” Cruz said. A 5-year-old girl, identified as Cora Clancy, and a 3-year-old boy, identified as Dawson Clancy, were both transported to a hospital in nearby Plymouth, where they were pronounced dead. A 7-month-old boy, who was not named, was flown to a Boston hospital for treatment, according to Cruz. The infant’s condition was unknown.
Massachusetts’ Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the causes of deaths.
“Preliminarily, it appears the children were strangled,” Cruz said during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. “As soon as able, we will be arraigning her on the two charges of murder in the deaths of her children.”
Late Wednesday, the district attorney announced via Twitter that an arrest warrant had been issued for Lindsay Clancy for two counts of homicide as well as three counts each for strangulation and assault and battery with a deadly weapon for the deaths of Cora and Dawson Clancy. The mother is under police custody, according to Cruz.
The district attorney was asked by reporters during Wednesday’s press conference whether Lindsay Clancy had any known mental health issues.
“I’m not in a position to comment on mental health issues,” he replied. “However, I would say that everything is being looked at.”
Cruz reiterated that the investigation is “active and ongoing” by the Duxbury Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police, with investigators “working this case around the clock.”
He commended “the professionalism and the work” of the first responders.
“I’m sure many of them will not forget what they saw last evening,” he said “I think we should all be grateful to the men and women that put a uniform on that are willing do this difficult and challenging job.”
(NEW YORK) — Several Florida students say they plan to sue the state and Gov. Ron DeSantis over the state’s rejection of the Advanced Placement African American studies course in state schools.
“If he does not negotiate with the College Board to allow AP African American studies to be taught in classrooms across the state of Florida, these three young people will be the lead plaintiffs,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump at a Wednesday press conference.
The lawsuit is backed by Crump and attorney Craig Whisenhunt, who will be representing three AP honors high school students.
“I realized that I have not learned much about the history or culture of my people outside of my parents and close relatives,” one of the students involved in the legal action said at the press conference.
Another student at the press conference argued that DeSantis doesn’t have “the right to take this opportunity from thousands of students across the state.”
“There are many gaps in American history regarding the African American population,” a third student said. “The implementation of an AP African American History class could fill in those gaps.”
The governor’s office referred questions to the Florida Department of Education.
“This threat is nothing more than a meritless publicity stunt,” Florida Department of Education Communications Director Alex Lanfranconi said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday.
Last year, DeSantis signed the “Stop WOKE” Act into law, restricting race-related conversations and instruction in workplaces, schools and colleges. The law includes a ban on teaching or business practices that contend members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilt for past actions committed by others. A federal judge in Florida issued a temporary injunction in November against the act’s implementation in higher education, which is still being battled in court.
“We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy, we will not allow reality, facts and truth to become optional. We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,” DeSantis said during his Jan. 3 inauguration.
In a letter obtained by ABC News, the state DOE rejected the course, calling it “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
“If the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion,” a Florida DOE official previously told ABC News.
The state DOE said in the letter it was concerned with several topics in the course, including Black Queer studies, intersectionality and activism, Black feminist literary thought and the reparations movement.
At the Wednesday press conference on the potential lawsuit, several state legislators criticized DeSantis for his administration’s recent efforts to restrict education on race and diversity.
State Rep. Michele Rayner said that “critical race theory” has become a racist dog whistle used to wipe the stories of racial justice icons like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King from classrooms.
“You cannot say on Monday that you support Dr. King and on Wednesday refuse to tell his story,” Rayner said.
The course is currently being piloted in a small number of high schools across the country with plans to roll out the course for any high school that wants it in the 2024-2025 school year, the College Board said. The Advanced Placement Program will release the official framework for the AP African American Studies course on Feb. 1 in time for Black History Month, replacing the preliminary pilot course framework.
“The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result,” the College Board said in a Jan. 20 statement. “We will publicly release the updated course framework when it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools. We look forward to bringing this rich and inspiring exploration of African-American history and culture to students across the country.”
The College Board has not clarified how the framework that will be released will differ from the framework being piloted or if any of the changes will be a direct response to Florida’s concerns about the course.
Lanfranconi of the Florida DOE said, “As Governor DeSantis said, African American History is American History, and we will not allow any organization to use an academic course as a gateway for indoctrination and a political agenda. We look forward to reviewing the College Board’s changes and expect the removal of content on Critical Race Theory, Black Queer Studies, Intersectionality, and other topics that violate our laws.”
“The interdisciplinary course reaches into a variety of fields — literature, the arts and humanities, political science, geography and science — to explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans,” read a College Board description of the course.
Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. tweeted Friday evening that the AP course was “filled with Critical Race Theory and other obvious violations of Florida law.”
“We proudly require the teaching of African American history. We do not accept woke indoctrination masquerading as education,” he continued.
The White House last week called Florida’s rejection of the AP African American history course “incomprehensible.”
“It is incomprehensible, that — to see that this is what this band or this block to be more specific, that DeSantis has put forward, if you think about the study of Black Americans, that is what he wants to block,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at a Jan. 20 briefing.
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly 27% of all inmates held in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections were held past their release dates over a four-month period, according to a Justice Department report.
The Justice Department said in a report that between January and April 2022, 26.8% of the people, or 1,108 people, released from LDOC’s custody were held past their release dates. Twenty-four percent of the people were held for over 90 days past their release dates, and the median number of days over detained was 29, the report added. There were nearly 4,200 people in custody overall.
“LDOC is deliberately indifferent to the systemic over detention of people in its custody,” the Justice Department said.
The agency’s over detention violates the 14th amendment which guarantees people that are incarcerated in jail and prison not to be detained beyond their release dates, the Justice Department said.
“Our investigation uncovered evidence of systemic violations by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections that have resulted in the routine confinement of people far beyond the dates when they are legally entitled to be released. We are committed to taking action that will ensure that the civil rights of people held in Louisiana’s jails and prisons are protected. We stand ready to work with state officials to institute long overdue reforms,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a press release on Wednesday.
This is costly, the Justice Department said.
“In just this four-month period, LDOC had to pay parish jails an estimated $850,000, at a minimum, in fees for the days those individuals were incarcerated beyond their lawful sentences. At that rate, this unconstitutional practice costs Louisiana over $2.5 million a year,” a release from the Justice Department says.
The DOJ said that LDOC has been on notice of the problem for 10 years but has done nothing to fix it.
LDOC has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Tyre Nichols, the Black man whose death this month at the hands of five Memphis, Tennessee, police officers has triggered national outrage, suffered from “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to a preliminary independent autopsy commissioned by the family.
“His observed injuries are consistent with what the family and attorneys witnessed on the video of his fatal encounter with police on January 7,” the family of Tyre Nichols and their attorneys, Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, said in a statement. “Further details and findings from this independent report will be disclosed at another time.”
The autopsy was released by the family’s attorneys who hired their own “highly regarded, nationally renowned forensic pathologist” to complete the report. The independent autopsy has not been released publicly.
Body camera footage of the incident has yet to be released, but Crump described the video as “appalling,” “deplorable,” “heinous,” “violent” and “troublesome on every level” during a press conference Monday.
The family is cooperating with an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice. Police said the bodycam video will be released within the next two weeks.
“Whatever it takes to clear my son’s name and to get justice for my son,” Rodney Wells told ABC News. “If they need to keep the video for two more weeks, then let them keep the video for two more weeks.”
The Memphis Police Department announced on Friday that it fired the five police officers, all Black, involved in the incident, concluding the department’s internal investigation.
The officers were identified as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith.
The former police officers and the police union did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Memphis Chief of Police Cerelyn Davis said that other Memphis police officers are still under investigation for Memphis Police Department policy violations in a video posted Wednesday evening.
After viewing the bodycam video, Davis called the officers’ actions “heinous, reckless, and inhumane,” adding that “when the video is released in the coming days, you will see this for yourselves.”
Chief Davis said that she expects those to protest following the video’s release, but warns that even though she anticipates outrage, that “none of this is a calling card for inciting violence.”
Nichols’ family said he was kicked, pepper-sprayed and shocked with a stun gun, all while Nichols repeatedly asked, “What did I do?”
“Once the video started and I heard my son’s voice, I lost it. I couldn’t stay in the room. All I heard him say was, ‘What did I do?’ And once I heard that, I lost it,” Rowvaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, told ABC News on Monday.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy told ABC News his office is looking into possible criminal charges against the former officers. The family said it is hoping for murder charges.
Nichols was stopped by police on Jan. 7 for alleged reckless driving and was hospitalized in critical condition after complaining of shortness of breath during the arrest. Three days later, Nichols died.
“They handcuffed him and set him, propped him up on the car. And as he fell over they’d tell him ‘sit back up,'” Rodney told ABC News. “You know, and he would slump back over again and they would make him sit back up. They never rendered any aid.”
(NEW YORK) — A massive, coordinated scheme to sell false and fraudulent nursing degree credentials has been brought down by a joint federal law enforcement operation, Justice Department officials said Wednesday.
As first reported by ABC News, officials said the scheme involved peddling more than $100 million worth of bogus nursing diplomas and transcripts over the course of several years — fake credentials that were sold to help “thousands of people” take “shortcuts” toward becoming licensed, practicing nurses.
The forged diplomas and transcripts were sold from what had been accredited schools to aspiring nurses, in order to help candidates bypass the qualifying requirements necessary to sit for the national nursing board exam. Although they still had to take the exam, the bogus credentials allowed them to skip vital steps of the competency and licensure process, officials said — and once licensed, those individuals were able to find a job in the health care field.
Overall, the conspiracy involved the distribution of over 7,600 fake nursing diplomas and certificates issued by Florida-based nursing programs, according to officials.
“This is probably one of the most brazen schemes that I’ve seen. And it does shock the mind,” Omar Perez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
The sweeping enforcement action spanned five states: Florida, New York, New Jersey, Texas and Delaware, and resulted in more than two dozen criminal wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy charges against 25 individuals.
We “expect our health care professionals to be who they claim they are. Specifically when we talk about a nurse’s education, and credentials – shortcut is not a word we want to use,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe. “When we take an injured son or daughter to a hospital emergency room, we don’t expect — really cannot imagine — that the licensed practical nurse or registered nurse training our child took a shortcut.”
HHS-OIG, the FBI and Justice Department worked jointly on the operation, dubbed “Operation Nightingale,” in honor of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
Investigating agents spent weeks combing through upwards of 10,000 records from nursing schools to move the investigation forward. “As we started to poke through them we noticed there were no real courses the individuals took — it was simply a cash mill,” Aybar said.
Nursing candidates who allegedly participated in the scheme would pay as much as $15,000 for the fraudulent diplomas, officials said.
The defendants include “owners, operators and employees” of the schools who “prepared and sold fake nursing school diplomas and transcripts to nursing candidates, knowing that the candidates would use those false documents to one, sit for nursing board examinations, secure nursing licenses, and three ultimately obtain nursing jobs in medical facilities — not only in Florida, but elsewhere across the country,” Lapointe said. All three schools have since closed, according to officials. Additional defendants charged include “recruiters” to bring in would-be buyers.
The alleged scheme enabled these nursing candidates allegedly buying the fake diplomas “to avoid hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of clinical training — countless hours getting that experience,” Lapointe said. “These people didn’t go through that. That part was completely skipped.”
“For them, it was worth the investment, or the risk,” Aybar told ABC News.
For those involved — “the owners of the nursing schools, certainly the recruiters and, without doubt, the recipients of the transcripts and the nursing diplomas” — Aybar said, “It was definitely all motivated by greed.”
Federal law enforcement officials underscored the high stakes of the scheme, saying that it potentially jeopardized patients’ health and safety — and that standards for safe nursing care cannot be purchased — only learned.
“What is disturbing about the scheme is the possibility of harm coming to patients under the dubious care of one of these allegedly fraudulent nurses,” acting Special Agent in Charge Chad Yarbrough, FBI Miami, said.
In the indictments, federal law enforcement officials alleged that the defendants — some in leadership roles at nursing schools — “solicited and recruited individuals who sought nursing credentials to gain employment as Registered Nurses (RN) or Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses (LPN/VN),” then arranged with co-conspirators “to create and distribute false and fraudulent diplomas and transcripts” to falsely represent that the aspiring nurses had attended the program and had completed the necessary courses to receive a diploma, when “in fact, the aspiring nurses had never actually completed the necessary courses and clinicals.”
Aybar said one of the ways officials were alerted to the alleged scheme was when the Florida state auditing process discovered poor passing rates at three nursing schools.
Alleged participants in the scheme backdated the diplomas and transcripts they were selling, to make them appear legitimate, authorities said. Applicants would use those forged diplomas, transcripts and additional records to obtain licensure in various states — then, once licensed, applicants could then use those fraudulent documents to get nursing jobs “with unwitting health care providers throughout the country,” according to officials.
Officials said they had “not learned of, nor uncovered any evidence of patient harm stemming from these individuals potentially providing services to patients” — but it was the potential for that harm to patients that was precisely the concern.
Aybar said that is why, from the onset of the investigation, authorities have been working with state licensing boards to share as much information as they could, as fast as they could, so the respective boards “can assess what actions to take to prevent these individuals from rendering care.”
The action by federal law enforcement comes at a crucial moment in the health care industry, where an existing nurse shortage, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has left many nursing staffs spread thin and burnt out.
“I’m confident that there will be a level of accountability that all of these individuals will face,” Aybar said.
Defendants in the alleged scheme, if convicted, face a statutory maximum of 20 years in jail for the charges of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, the DOJ said.
Aybar pointed to the pledge of ethics and principles that nurses take, called the “Nightingale Pledge.”
“They pledge that they’re going to abstain from any deleterious act. They will do all in their power to enhance and honor the profession. Clearly, these individuals did not do that here,” he said.
“We understand that this conduct has no reflection on the hard work and dedication that [nurses] put into making this profession honorable, and so thank you for that,” Aybar added. “I encourage those of you — if you’re in a setting and you happen to have someone that may not be practicing up to the standards as you understand it, maybe if you see something, say something.”
Officials said that at this point it is up to the state licensing boards to push forward with action against those individuals under their purview — some of whom have been practicing nursing “somewhere in the United States, perhaps currently,” Lapointe said.
“We know who they are,” Lapointe said.
“Not only is this a public safety issue, but it also tarnishes the reputation of nurses who actually did the hard clinical and coursework required to get licenses and jobs,” Lapointe said. “And of course, erodes the centuries-old trust we have built with our country’s nurses.”
