A Miami Beach man, who allegedly forced women in South Florida and Nevada into prostitution, will serve 15 years for beating and strangling one of his victims.
Tuesday a judge sentenced Robert Burton, 34, on trial for an assault of a 31-year-old woman and for abducting their 7-year-old son in 2011, according to the Associated Press.
When police conducted a traffic stop with Burton and asked about two women in his car, prosecutors say the 7-year-old answered, “Those are my daddy’s hoes.”
The Miami Herald reports that Burton fathered children with three of the six women, whom he reportedly forced to solicit sex at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood and the Delano hotel in Miami Beach.
Burton is the first conviction for the Miami-Dade Human Trafficking Unit.
The crime is so rife in Dade County that a walk-in support center that serves victims of commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking was opened in Miami last year.
And in 2011, Miami led the state in calls to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center tip line. Annual statistics for 2012 are not yet available.
Miami State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has made trafficking a priority as she begins her fifth term, and new legislation — like a new bill that enforces a curfew on Florida massage parlors — aims at curtailing the sex trade.
Gov. Rick Scott recently designated January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Florida, a state that ranks third in the country for human trafficking.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: If you suspect an adult is a victim of human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-3737-888. If you suspect a child is a victim, please call the Florida Abuse Hotline at 1-800-96-ABUSE.
