top
Peninsula
Peninsula
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

False Harassment Due To Operation Dollhouse

by Jody Williams
Recall Steve Wagstaffe campaign
Ten years ago, I was approached by men who were part of an illegal trafficking network comprised of men who were guards, sheriffs, police officers, FBI agents, etc. If you'd like to see an example of what I mean to explain, the film "The Departed" is a pretty close representation of this criminal network of men who were also officers of the law.

I had "gone straight" and cleaned up my act in 1985. Since 1985, I have been clean of all drugs, all crime, and have been no longer involved in prostitution, nor worked as a madam. However, back in 1984 I was quite an infamous madam. The media had dubbed me the "High Tech Madam" in fact when I was arrested in 1984 (http://www.hightechmadam.com). I have since used that notoriety to be my own "me too" connection to help others know that if I could straighten out - they could also. That's why in 1987, I created the hotline and 12 step program of http://www.sexworkersanonymous.net

Minding my own business, these men targeted me. They wanted me to come work for them as a madam. It's not an easy job believe me! Especially if you're in law enforcement by day. These people were recruiting right out of the jails and prisons (again just like in the Departed). Just like pimps do, they chased off my husband, messed with my health insurance, cut off my income, and basically put me into a financially desperate situation thinking that once this young man they sent in to "recruit" me had befriended me - that I would take them up on their offer. They make being an "informant" sound enticing - you get to live like a criminal, earn like a criminal, but you are supposedly guaranteed you won't be busted.

Once these men realized I wasn't going to accept their offer, they tried to murder me and attacked my daughter who was 12 years old at the time. To try and protect us, I went to the local authorities asking for them to do something about this network. Who then proceeded to just clean up all evidence of what I had reported, except for a few Asian houses that were operating as illegal brothels. The women didn't speak English, and they were trapped in the house unable to leave. So they were also trapped.

Trying to get help to them, I was speaking to the Salvation Army at that time. They had offered to give Nevada a $440,000 grant to set up the ATLAS program which was supposed to be truly ground breaking. Instead of the usual taking the prostitute who is arrested to the jail, and then asking her who is trafficking her, and then wondering why she's not answering you (because in this case the traffickers were at the jail), this program was supposed to take the women to the Salvation Army for questioning without the presence of law enforcement to see if they needed any help.

But if they were to testify their traffickers were actually law enforcement, we needed a structure in place that would be willing and able to prosecute people who are considered immune from prosecution historically. To prove that, I had agreed to help Melissa Farley with a research project also that year with the State Dept. This meant we had to prove the claim I was making that this network was sending up two sheriffs from San Mateo county every two weeks to make a drop of drugs, guns, counterfeit goods, and/or whatever else was passing through in these official cars to avoid detection by catching them "red handed" because many just weren't believing this claim in 2006-2007 when I was making this to them.

So the raid was staged, and sure enough, a large bag of drugs, along with 24 Chinese women and two San Mateo sheriffs were caught in a private home on the day of the raid in April of 2007. This was called Operation Dollhouse. Only as the sheriffs were being processed for arrest, Steve Wagstaffe evidently wanted the "whole thing to be swept under the rug". The victims were sent back to the brothel with their pimps, even the juvenile girl who was pregnant. This dismissed the case, which then dismissed the case against the two sheriffs. Metro then issued a grant to the Salvation Army for $370,000 in order to agree to "restructure" the ATLAS program - which meant get rid of me - and to not work with any victim that Metro didn't refer to them for help. (Which is why a year later they had refused to help ANY victims for over $1,000,000 in total grant money provided to Nevada to aid victims.)

I however wouldn't let it go. I continued to push on exposing this ring and one by one they were. The truth started coming out about people like Chris Butler, Joohon David Lee, Kemp Shiffer, and others in the news you can google. In return, I've been harassed by law enforcement under some bogus accusation one after the other year after year.

Including the one Steve Wagstaffe got to put on me in July of 2018. A false accusation was made against me for "practicing law without a license". They didn't serve me with the complaint, sealed it, and then using a sealed search warrant, they then seized my private privileged emails in order to find out where I lived. Once they discovered where I lived, I had 4 Metro officers in Nevada show up at my house who had no way of knowing that address unless someone in San Mateo provided it to them - and they proceeded to spend 2 hours trying to literally break my door down without any warrant or probable cause. Mind you, I'm now a 58 year old disabled woman with a disabled daughter I care for - and I had to listen to these men try and tear my front door down for two hours before a reporter called and asked why they were there - finally scaring them away thank God. Had he not scared them off - I believe they would have murdered me that night and I'd have become another Sandra Bland.

Instead of a citation if I was truly guilty of this accusation, they used underhanded tactics. They deliberately didn't serve me with the complaint, then knowing this, they held an arraignment, and issued a bench warrant for me. After the warrant was issued, they've refused to provide me with a public defender. Steve Wagstaffe is the threat to public safety - not the protector. On behalf of the trafficking victims who have NO protection by the authorities because of men like Steve Wagstaff standing behind these traffickers, and then coming after me like the criminal - but dismissing the charges, and even the very investigation against the ones caught red handed in the act of international sex and drug trafficking - this is not a man who should remain in office as prosecutor. That is not protecting women who are supposed to be able to rely on the system for that protection. I now am afraid of the police and I'm the law abiding citizen because of Steve Wagstaffe - in my personal opinion.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$90.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network