Page 4 - Michael Erenhoff News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

It puts more fear into the girls because somehow these men know things that they weren't privy to. >> the federal case against 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 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...

For the crime, trafficker michael erenhoff received a reduced sentence of seven years for testifying against his former partner. katya says neither sentence is long enough. >> i feel that when -- that she told judge that they will sit for that period of amount of time, i feel it wasn't enough for them. what they did to us, it was terrible. >> even today, with both men behind bars, katya lives in fear. her mother still lives in ukraine and the old rules still apply. >> alex's father, he was in ukraine and he knows my mom, he know where she lived and he visited her a couple of times after i ran ...

Bought for $300, $400, $500. >> besides being katya's attorney, bridgette carr represents other victims of 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 an...

>> the federal case against 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 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...

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. >> tho every penny to their traffickers. >> they have a bea...