Page 2 - Michael Erenhoff News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Trafficking. >> once i started looking into the issue and realizing that i wanted to be an advocate for victims of human trafficking, it seemed like i couldn't turn around without trafficking hitting me in the face. >> almost every girl who i knew was sexually abused, raped. it wasn't in front of me but it was in another room where i could hear, i could actually see after the girl was talking about that. >> alex and michael had keys to the apartment, and they treated both the apartment and the individuals inside it as their own property. alex would walk in and tell some of the women, let's go....

For almost a year, 20-year-old katya, a university student from ukraine, was forced to work strip clubs in detroit by two men she thought were taking her to a waitressing job in america. alex maksimenko and michael erenhoff imprisoned her and 15 other women in separate apartments around detroit. >> we couldn't keep any money in our apartment because the guys has keys that have -- i believe they would listen to us in the apartment and we could not hide nothing. if we try to save at least a dollar, it will be something bad happen to us. >> those 12-hour shifts yielded up to $1,000 a day, but the...

>> there was no armed guard outside of their door, okay? there was -- maksimenko didn't sit inside the bar, you know, the entire 12 hours with a gun in his pocket. >> michael rataj, maksimenko's attorney, argues that the girls could have left anytime. >> if you make any false moves or try to run out of here, i'm going to kill you, there was none of that. >> bridget carr, katya's attorney, scoffs at that notion. she says the girls knew that maksimenko had recently firebombed the car of a girl's sister who had tried to help her escape. >> alex and michael told her, if you try to leave, we'll kil...

Maksimenko was a slam-dunk, and his lawyer knew it. rather than take his chances with a jury, he pled guilty to trafficking and was convicted of rape. the owners of the strip clubs were not charged with trafficking. michael rataj says that despite his client's treatment of the girls alex maksimenko is also a victim. >> i think in some ways, in sort of a perverse way, alex is a victim. he's a victim of his upbringing. he's a victim of his father. he didn't have a father who took him, you know, and taught him how to throw a baseball or was involved in his life. his father's a criminal. he taught...

Trafficking. >> once i started looking into the issue and realizing that i wanted to be an advocate for victims of human trafficking, it seemed like i couldn't turn around without trafficking hitting me in the face. >> almost every girl who i knew was sexually abused, raped. it wasn't in front of me but it was in another room where i could hear, i could actually see after the girl was talking about that. >> alex and michael had keys to the apartment, and they treated both the apartment and the individuals inside it as their own property. alex would walk in and tell some of the women, "let's go...