Feds Say ID Theft Investigation Uncovers House Of Horrors In Detroit: Women Enslaved, Sold For Sex; Children Raped
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - What started as an identity theft investigation turned into something much more serious when authorities say they uncovered a house of horrors in Detroit.
Federal prosecutors have accused 32-year-old Ryon L. Travis of producing and distributing child pornography and running a sex trafficking operation involving four women, including one whom authorities allegedly found chained to a stripper pole inside the home.
Travis, an unemployed father of seven children, pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment in U.S. District Court and was returned to jail.
According to court records, the case began as a fraud and identity theft investigation by West Bloomfield police.
Officers executing a search warrant March 2 at Travis' home seized two cellphones, which three women in the house said belonged to Travis, court records say. The phones contained images of child pornography, prosecutors allege. One image reportedly showed an underage girl lying on a distinctive blue and white sheet seen on a bed at Travis' house.
Authorities returned to the home later that month and found a 25-year-old woman chained by a padlock around her neck to a pole, the records say.
The woman said she had lived with Travis and the three other women for two years, and that she was chained up for two weeks because she tried to escape, according to court documents. She told authorities that when Travis caught her, he beat her and held her in bondage.
According to the documents, the woman said Travis posted online ads advertising he had four women available for paid sex acts. The woman also said Travis took her each month to the bank when her $700 Social Security disability check came in, made her cash it and then took away the money.
At a March 23 detention hearing, the Detroit Free Press reported, Travis said: "I choose not to do business with this court. I ask that this case be dismissed."
A judge denied his request and ordered him detained until trial, as prosecutors had requested.
Travis' court-appointed lawyer, Stacey Studnicki, said she understood the seriousness of the charges but had urged the judge to be "skeptical" in accepting the words of accusers and asked that the judge consider letting Travis live with his wife.
Travis is charged with sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and producing, possessing and transporting child pornography.
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