At a homeless shelter, she met a man who introduced her to crack cocaine, she said. The man she met in the shelter trafficked her, she said, but she continued in prostitution on her own after he went to jail. She was arrested some 30 times in those years, including once by a Worcester police officer who offered to keep her out of jail if she had sex with him, she said. The DOJ worked incredibly hard to build trust with a marginalized group of people so that they could stop the harm that was happening to them.
In addition to the sexual allegations, investigators found that officers used unnecessary force against people experiencing a mental health crisis and often employed excessive force, such as the use of tasers and police dogs. City and police officials in Worcester have disputed the findings.
Attorney Brian T. Justice Department officials pushed back on criticisms of the investigation from Kelly and police union officials. And Deputy US Attorney Mary Murrane said the department could refer potential criminal cases to federal or state prosecutors, but would not discuss those publicly. A woman said that in an officer pulled up in a rental car, identified himself as a police officer, and showed his gun and a bag of drugs, according to the report.
The officer told the woman he would arrest her on a drug charge if she did not give him oral sex, the report said. On Saturday in the Main South area of Worcester, few who shared their thoughts about the Police Department and the federal investigation were willing to speak for attribution, fearing retaliation from the police. Many were not aware of the report. She started the sex-trafficking survivor organization Safe Exit Initiative and around spoke out about misconduct at the Police Department during a meeting of the Worcester Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, which she said drew resistance from the department and city officials.
Some other women in Worcester said they were disturbed but not surprised by the findings in the DOJ report. Christina Eskra, 49, said she felt encouraged that federal authorities had focused on the local police. Eskra said she worked as a prostitute in Florida in the early s to support a drug addiction before she went into recovery.
