FARGO, N.D. – The North Dakota GOP put out another statement on the evening of Friday, May 2, to address the conduct of former state senator Ray Holmberg and to state all the party had done to distance themselves from him once that behavior had come to light. The statement included a timeline of events, saying that in August of…
ALEXANDRIA, Minn. (KVRR/KFGO) — A man was arrested in Alexandria, Minnesota after a months-long investigation into sex trafficking. Police learned 30-year-old Dakar Ortiz was planning to stop in Alexandria Friday. He was wanted in Minnesota for sex trafficking and providing false information to police. Ortiz also has felony warrants in California for robbery, terrorizing, and assault. When Ortiz arrived at…
WAHPETON, N.D. (KFGO) – Two Wahpeton men are charged with sexually trafficking a 16-year-old girl in Wahpeton. According to court documents, Javier Martinez brought the girl to the home of Antonio Harris where Harris held the girl and repeatedly raped her over a two-week period. Investigators say Martinez brought the girl to Harris’s home knowing he would force her to…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A formerly well-connected GOP donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on sex trafficking charges. Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was found guilty in March by a federal jury of seven counts involving “commercial sex acts” with five girls ages 15 and 16 in 2020, when…
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former “Dances With Wolves” actor accused of leading a cult could be facing multiple felonies and life in prison after police said he sexually assaulted young Indigenous girls and took multiple wives during a period spanning two decades, court records show. As of Wednesday, Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, who goes by Nathan Chasing Horse,…
RAPID CITY, S.D. – A Rapid City man indicted in an undercover sex trafficking sting during the 2020 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally has been sentenced to 14 years in prison. Christopher Truax was found guilty last November of attempted enticement of a minor using the internet, a federal charge that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. According to prosecutors,…
Courtesy: MNGOPEDINA, Minn. — Minnesota GOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan is fighting back as several Minnesota lawmakers call on her to step down after a close friend and donor was indicted and arrested on underage sex trafficking charges. Carnahan released a statement saying that she does not plan to resign and wrote that it is “disappointing that leaders in our party…
NORTH DAKOTA — January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and organizers in North Dakota are helping inform the public of the severity of the issue. “When you look at human trafficking it’s a criminal act, and it’s also what we call human rights violations,” ND Human Trafficking Taskforce’s Dr. Analena M. Lunde said. Human trafficking affects many people, and the…
MAHNOMEN, MN — Three Minnesota men were arrested Friday in Mahnomen during a sex trafficking sting by TRUST: the Tribes United Against Sex Trafficking Task Force. Arrested were 46-year-old Steven Bergren of Lake Park, 35-year-old Shane Lehn of Rothsay and 59-year-old Michael Skjerven of Thief River Falls. The men arranged to meet investigators who were posing as sex trafficking victims…
FARGO, N.D. –It’s a silent industry in more than 100 countries and in all 50 states, ruining lives and shattering families. In our lead story, KVRR’s Danielle Church tells us how a small group is fighting this industry, and in the process, taking on a task as big as the world itself. Trauma blocks some of the details but the…
