New Yorker Expunges Prostitution Record Under Trafficking Law

There's been some buzz among us about the use of expungement laws to remove arrests (and convictions) of victims arrested for prostitution. Here's an article (see first article) about the first beneficiary of a new law in NY.

[A] 22-year-old New Yorker wasallowed on Wednesday to erase her criminal prostitution record, the first U.S. citizen to do so under a new sex trafficking law. Identified by authorities only as Ms. Johnson, a pseudonym used out of concern for her safety, the woman was a 13-year-old runaway when she was pushed into prostitution by a 21-year-old man she thought was her boyfriend, according to documents filed in state Supreme Court in the Bronx. Over the next six years, the Bronx native was sold by pimps on the street and convicted three times for prostitution before a customer helped her to escape. On Wednesday, her criminal record for prostitution was expunged by a judge who agreed with both prosecutors and defense attorneys that she was protected under a recent New York State law that equates pimps with sex traffickers. Under the law, "pimp-controlled" prostitutes of any age are considered victims who should not bear the burden of convictions that can interfere with employment, housing, government benefits and other aspects of a law-abiding life. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 21 September 2011; Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/sns-rt-us-sextraffickingtre78k7q3-20110921,0,2747851.story]