WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Sex and labor trafficking are multimillion-dollar illegal industries. It leaves a scar on those who escape and sometimes a criminal record.
With a recent law, people with convictions related to trafficking can get their records wiped clean.
"So now I have six years of sex offender probation, I have a 7-7 curfew, I can’t go see my family, I had to get a court order giving me permission to be around my own kids," Melissa Griffin explained.
Griffin says those are the consequences she lives after being a victim of sex trafficking.
After a cycle of violent relationships, she says a boyfriend forced her into sex work.
"Anytime we had any disagreement, he would take my daughter who was an infant at the time and be like if you don’t do what I'm telling you to do, you'll never see your baby again," she recalled.
She eventually escaped. How? Prison.
After becoming an accomplice to the very man she says forced her into a life of trafficking, she was hit with several charges including enticing a child and sexual exploitation of a minor.
"She ended up being an underage runaway from Florida. The police came and it just snowballed from there," she recalled the 2017 incident.
Six years ago, former Warner Robins Police officer Lance Watson was on the team that arrested Griffin.
"She was not arrested that day, she was arrested later on simply because the story she gave needed some more looking into, and once we looked into it, it's like, 'Well, maybe she could possibly be a victim,'" he said.
He takes responsibility for not communicating that to the DA. He says the system failed Griffin.
Now, he's an advocate in trying to get her record clean through the Vacatur for Human Trafficking survivors. She hopes that will give her a second chance.
"From everybody that I've talked to about it, they say I'm the poster child for this law, it's almost shut-and-close, you know?" she said.
Camila Zolfaghari is the executive director with Street Grace. The organization trains attorneys who represent trafficking survivors in court.
"91% of adults trafficking survivors have a criminal record, the majority which is a direct result of their trafficking. it holds them back from jobs, it holds them back from housing and so it really, it’s really one of those ongoing results and hindrances of their trafficking," she explained.
She says victims and attorneys who want to help can contact them at www.streetgrace.org or email info@streetgrace.org