Togo to US Child Trafficking

“Some of the children were only in middle school when a former tennis pro from Africa faked immigration papers and brought them to Michigan, where he forced them to cook and clean while starving and beating them with toilet plungers, broomsticks and electrical cords.

Jean-Claude Toviave presented the children as his own, but authorities and the victims’ statements described them as little more than slaves with little chance to escape in a foreign country.

“I prayed at night that God would either help me to be free or allow your assaults to kill me,” one boy, now in high school, wrote in a victim impact statement. “The pain is something I will never forget. In the midst of your verbal and physical assaults, you worked the four of us to death.”

Toviave, 44, was sentenced Monday to more than 11 years in federal prison after a jury convicted him in October on four counts of forced labor. He previously pleaded guilty to fraud and misuse of visas, mail fraud and harboring aliens.

In a court filing, prosecutors said the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Toviave brought the four children from Togo in 2006 and forced them to work in his home in Ypsilanti, near Ann Arbor, for nearly five years until January 2011. Toviave, who was a tennis pro in Togo until 1990, presented the children as his own and enrolled some of them in middle school when they arrived. They now range in age from teenagers to young adults.

The children told authorities that Toviave made them vacuum, iron, cook, clean and shine shoes. If they didn’t follow his orders, he beat them or denied them food.

The boy who is now in high school said he has permanent damage to his vision and persistent headaches after Toviave kicked him and punched him in the face. But he also said he plays several sports at school, is president of the student council and wants to study medicine.

The “Lord has healed my heart enough to find something good while enduring the physical, mental and emotional abuse you dealt,” the boy, known only as “A.K.,” wrote in his victim impact statement, which was read in court.

Two of the former children attended Toviave’s sentencing, but they did not speak.
Toviave didn’t apologize when he had the opportunity to speak but instead recounted traveling to Ghana in 2007 to visit his sick mother. U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow gave him the maximum sentence sought by the government, 135 months in prison, with credit for about two years already served.

“I can’t get a read on you,” Tarnow told Toviave. “I can’t tell if you understand what you did was really wrong.”

After the hearing had ended, Toviave asked Tarnow if he could say something else. Tarnow said OK, but Toviave then decided against it.

The judge also ordered Toviave to pay two of the children $60,000 each and provide $7,200 apiece to two victims for counseling. But both the judge and defense lawyer Randall Roberts said it seemed unlikely Toviave would be able to come up with the money. Roberts referred to Toviave as “penniless.””

Jean-Claude Toviave Convicted Of Forcing Children To Work As Slaves In His Michigan Home

[Huffington Post 3/25/13 by Mike Householder]

Former tennis pro ‘trafficked four children from Togo to the U.S. and forced them to work as slaves in his Michigan home or face “savage” beatings and starvation’

[Daily Mail 3/24/13 by Associated Press]

“One teenage boy who spoke at the hearing thanked Toviave for bringing him to  the United States and giving him opportunities, but also told of years of abuse  at his hands.

“You had no respect for me. … I wake up with nightmares,” the youth  identified by the initials A.K. said. “You said that you would kill me with your  bare hands when I was only a child. … I pray that one day you will be able to  change your ways.

“You are an evil person.””

Man gets prison for enslaving 4 children

[UPI 3/25/13]

“A federal jury deliberated for less than a day in October before convicting Toviave, a former University of Michigan janitor and part-time tennis instructor, on four counts of forced labor.

During the six-day trial, the jury heard from the four victims, who testified that Toviave regularly beat them with broomsticks, a toilet plunger, sticks, ice scrapers and phone chargers if they failed to obey orders to do their household chores. Toviave also starved them and deprived them of sleep as punishment, they said.

They said the abuse spanned nearly five years in their Ypsilanti, Mich., home, which Toviave got through Habitat for Humanity, records show. Ypsilanti, with almost 20,000 residents, is about 5 miles southeast of Ann Arbor, Mich., and about 30 miles west of Detroit.

According to court records and courtroom testimony, Toviave brought the four into the U.S. by giving them passports with false names and dates of birth. He also falsely claimed they were his own biological children and enrolled the three youngest — ages 21, 20 and 15 — in a public middle school.

According to court records, the victims detailed the years of abuse in journals, which police confiscated, and reported the abuse to counselors, triggering an investigation. Toviave was arrested in May 2011.

The victims testified they were forced to do all of the cooking and housecleaning for Toviave, as well as iron his suits, shine his shoes, wash and vacuum his car and clean the home of one of his friends.

Federal prosecutors argued that Toviave deserved a stiff punishment because he was a father figure to these children and he abused their trust.

One of the victims had a message for Toviave, writing: “I pray for you everyday.””

University of Michigan janitor convicted of child slavery

[USA Today 3/25/13 by Tresa Baldas]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces