How Could You? Hall of Shame-Group Home Staff Counselor Reysean Williams UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Pawtucket, Rhode Island,a “former staff counselor at a group home was charged this week with sex trafficking a teenage girl who was under the care of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The Cranston police, working with U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigators, arrested Reysean Williams, 27, Monday at the Blackstone Valley Youth and Family Collaborative in Pawtucket. He has since been fired from his job working at the group home that helps transition men ages 18 to 21 who are in state care into independent living, according to Dan Brito, Blackstone Valley executive director.

The charge did not relate to Williams’ work at Blackstone, according to a spokeswoman for DCYF.

“It’s extremely disturbing. These are the people we should be helping,” Brito said Thursday. He added: “It’s sad that we have people in this field who engage in this behavior.”

Williams, of 52 Manton St., Pawtucket, was in District Court, Warwick on Tuesday. Judge Mary E. McCaffrey released Williams on a $10,000 property bond, court records show. He was referred to the public defender.

Kerri White, spokeswoman for DCYF, confirmed that a call was placed to the state hotline about Williams’ arrest, and that the victim’s case was open to the department. White said Williams had never been a caregiver to the child.

The Blackstone Valley Collaborative is contracted with the state to provide services to individuals in DCYF care.

White said that she couldn’t provide more information due to confidentiality laws, but that DCYF is investigating.

According to an affidavit supporting Williams’ arrest, filed in District Court by Cranston police, on April 17 the department’s special victims unit, working with Homeland Security, conducted a sting for juveniles posting advertisements for commercial sex on the Backpage website. A 17-year-old girl, identified as J1, was located.

Three days later, investigators accompanied J1 to an apartment in Cranston for a sex transaction. As a result, an unnamed man and woman were arrested for prostitution. Two cellphones were seized from J1.

Two conversations between the girl and Williams, using the handle “Sincere,” were found, the affidavit said. J1 had sent Williams nude and scantily clad images to which Williams would respond with screen shots of provocative Backpage ads he said he had posted.

J1 told investigators that she met Williams in late February through an unidentified male for purposes of prostitution, the affidavit says.

According to the affidavit, she and Williams reached an agreement in which they would split evenly all money earned for sex acts. Williams managed the posts and took her to hotels in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York, booking rooms for prostitution, under his own name using his credit card.

J1 told investigators that Williams would regularly drive a Blackstone Valley Collaborative van to a “trap house” in Providence, where J1 was staying, to collect money from her and others. She said that she and other females were not allowed to leave the house unless specific permission was granted, the affidavit says.

Col. Michael J. Winquist, Cranston police chief, referred all questions to the federal agency involved in the probe.

Shawn Neudauer, public affairs officer for Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston, referred calls to the state attorney general’s office and said that eventually Williams might be charged federally.

Amy Kempe, spokeswoman for the attorney general, said the department is working with its partners to ensure the mental and physical well-being of sex-trafficking victims. “As law enforcement finishes the investigation, prosecutors from our office and the U.S. Attorney’s office will determine the best venue for prosecution — either in state court of federal court,” she said.

The Providence Journal does not identify juveniles or alleged victims of sex crimes. The phone number listed for Williams was not accepting calls Thursday afternoon.”

Former Pawtucket group home employee accused of sex-trafficking teen in DCYF care [Providence Journal 4/27/17 by Katie Mulvaney]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“A former group home counselor and another man are charged with trafficking a 17-year-old girl at hotels in Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts.

A federal grand jury this week indicted 27-year-old Reysean “Sincere” Williams, of Pawtucket, and 18-year-old Providence resident Leandro “Leo” Gomes on multiple sex trafficking charges.

Prosecutors allege the duo trafficked the victim at hotels in Warwick, Rhode Island; Queens, New York; and locations in Massachusetts in March.

The Providence Journal reports that Williams had worked at the Blackstone Valley Youth and Family Collaborative in Pawtucket but was fired.

Prosecutors allege Williams recruited Gomes into the scheme at a group home.

Gomes’ lawyer says his client had a troubled family life. Williams’ attorney described his client as a family man and suggested the victim was a co-conspirator.

Ex-group home counselor charged with sex trafficking

[WVCB 5/10/17 by AP]

Update 2:“A former group home counselor and a 19-year-old once foster child on Friday admitted their roles in the sex trafficking of a teenager who was under the custody of the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Reysean Williams, 28, of Pawtucket, reluctantly pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to sex trafficking a child, a charge for which he faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and up to life. His wife wiped tears away with her sleeve as Williams, a former staff member at the Blackstone Valley Youth and Family Collaborative in Pawtucket, entered his plea.

A long pause and much discussion with his lawyer, Jason Dixon Acosta, preceded the change-of-plea hearing before Chief Judge William E. Smith. In exchange for his admission, three other charges against Williams, a father of four, were dismissed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence Donnelly told the court that investigators had amassed a “boatload” of evidence that Williams and his co-defendant, 19-year-old Leandro Gomes, a former Blackstone resident, had trafficked a 17-year-old girl for prostitution.

Donnelly told of “millions” of cellphone and internet records showing that Gomes had advertised the teen’s services on the backpage website and arranged for meetings at five hotels in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Investigators with the Human Trafficking Task Force and Cranston detectives set up “a play for a two-girl special” in April 2017 and watched as Gomes transported the 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, who remains in custody on prostitution charges, to the meeting location in Williams’ black Infiniti with Texas plates, Donnelly said.

Williams would run errands related to the sex-trafficking scheme with the group home van and chat via text with Gomes about money they were owed, he said. The 17-year-old, who initially refused to to speak with authorities, eventually agreed to talk about the “many plays” she participated in each day, he said.

“She expected to make a lot of money from these situations, but did not,” said Donnelly, who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Attorney John McAdams.

It’s those facts that Williams took exception to in refusing to agree with prosecutors’ account.

“Tell me what the exceptions are?” Judge Smith said.

“She worked with me not for me and she did indeed profit,” Williams said.

Authorities have cast Williams as the ringleader of the scheme in which he recruited Gomes while the teen lived at Blackstone. In the aftermath, he was fired from his job at the group home that helps transition men ages 18 to 21 who are in state care to independent living.

Gomes, a former foster child who was living in transitional housing at the time of his arrest in 2017, pleaded guilty to knowingly traveling in interstate commerce with intent to engage in prostitution for driving the 17-year-old and an 18-year-old to a hotel on Long Island in New York. He faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing.

“You knew she was under 18?” Smith asked. “Yes, sir,” Gomes, of Providence, replied.

Gomes is represented by Mary June Ciresi.”

Former Pawtucket group home counselor, former resident admit roles in sex trafficking

[Providence Journal 11/30/18 by Katie Mulvaney]

Update 2:“A supervisor at Blackstone Valley Youth and Family Collaborative group home contracted by the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families (RI DCYF) who repeatedly sex-trafficked a missing 17-year-old girl has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

The sentencing was announced by Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Boston, Aaron L. Weisman, United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island and Colonel Michael J. Winquist, Chief of the Cranston (R.I.) Police Department on May 9.

“We applaud this sentence, which is fitting and appropriate in this case,” said Special Agent in Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh of HSI Boston.

“There is no crime more disturbing than the sexual exploitation of children.”

“This case was even more detestable since the victim targeted by the perpetrator was a vulnerable, at-risk youth in the care of the state.”

In March and April 2017, Reysean Williams, 28, with the assistance of Leonardo Gomes, 20, of Pawtucket, RI sex trafficked the 17-year-old in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and on Long Island, New York, by posting advertisements and pictures of the teenager on the website “Backpage.com”,according to court documents and information presented at trial.

The ads were discovered by agents from HSI agents in Providence, and by detectives of the Cranston Police Department

Williams first encountered Gomes when Williams was Gomes’ supervisor in a Pawtucket, RI residential group home contracted to provide services in the state youth agency’s care.

After Gomes was released from state agency custody, Williams recruited Gomes to participate in the sex trafficking operation, often using a state-run group home van to meet with Gomes and collect the proceeds from the 17-year-old sex trafficking victim.

Agents responded to a telephone number listed in the ads on Backpage.com to arrange a “a play for a two-girl special” with the 17-year-old at an apartment established by Cranston Police, to determine where the victim was being trafficked.

The victim and a female companion were taken into custody when they arrived at the apartment.

Gomes was found sitting in a vehicle across from the apartment and was arrested, and Williams was located and arrested approximately a week later.

Over the course of the investigation, authorities determined that in early March 2017, the victim met Williams and agreed to do “plays” (commercial sexual encounters) for him as a way of earning cash.

The victim told investigators that from mid-March to mid-April she usually did around 6 plays per day, but sometimes as many as 10 per day.

Oftentimes Gomes would drive her to various locations to perform sex acts in exchange for money in the Providence metropolitan area and in Massachusetts in a vehicle supplied by Williams, according to the victim.

The victim had also been driven by Gomes and Williams to locations as far away as the North Shore of Boston and on Long Island to perform sex acts in exchange for payment.

Williams paid for hotel rooms were paid for in cash, and all of the money paid to the 17-year-old was turned over to Gomes and Williams.

On Nov. 30, 2018 Reysean Williams pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a child and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison to be followed by five years’ supervised release May 9, 2019.

Leandro Gomes pleaded guilty on November 30, 2018, to traveling in interstate commerce with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. He was sentenced on March 15, 2019, to 36 months imprisonment to be followed by 10 years supervised release.

This case was investigated by the Providence, Rhode Island office of HSI Boston and by the Cranston (RI) Police Department.

The cases were prosecuted by the office of United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Aaron L. Weisman.”

Group Home Supervisor Sentenced to 10 Years for Sex Trafficking Minor

[Amercian Security Today 5/13/19 by Tammy Wiatt]