Celia Williamson wants to change the way the community thinks — and talks — about victims of human trafficking.

On the heels of the trial of a Toledo Police officer accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex, Ms. Williamson, director of the University of Toledo’s Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute, accused the legal system of putting the alleged victim on trial and the media of inaccurately portraying the young teen.

“Language is important. It can be used to denigrate someone. It can be used to lift up another person regardless of the facts,” Ms. Williamson said. “In the coverage of the former Toledo Police Officer Michael Moore, lots of damaging language was thrown around.”

Much of that damaging language, she said, was directed at the alleged victim, not at Mr. Moore, who was acquitted May 17 on two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and two counts of compelling prostitution. He flatly denied the allegations on the witness stand and is now trying to return to work at the police department.

Op-Ed by Celia Williamson: Language is important, and so is logic

Ms. Williamson took issue with the alleged victim being called “an underage prostitute” — a term the prosecutor and the defense attorneys used while the media, including The Blade, reported it.

“In fact, in Ohio, a 14-year-old that has sex with an adult for money is a child sex trafficking victim, at the very least, a child so desperate for money that she needs our immediate help, not our denigration,” she said.

Frank Spryszak, an assistant county prosecutor who tried Mr. Moore's case but did not attend Friday's news conference at the Kent branch library, said he understands Ms. Williamson's concerns and agrees the alleged victim was the victim of human sex trafficking.

However, he added he was constrained by the court, which ruled in advance of Mr. Moore's trial that the young girl could not be called “a victim” and that he could not talk about human trafficking until evidence of such was presented.

“Based upon that ruling and saying it was irrelevant because the defendant was not charged with human trafficking, I had to use the term 'child prostitute' so I could offer some context for the jury so they knew what they were dealing with,” Mr. Spryszak said.

He commended Ms. Williamson for increasing public awareness of human trafficking “so that they know that this type of behavior actually occurs in Toledo, that this is not something you just see on TV. It's not something that just happens in foreign countries. It happens in our own backyard.”

Ms. Williamson said that since the FBI formed a task force aimed at combating child sex trafficking in 2006, more than 260 children have been rescued and more than 100 convictions of traffickers obtained.

Sandy Sieben, co-chairman of the Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition, commended all victims and survivors or domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and labor trafficking who have been “brave enough to speak out.”

“When our justice system fails victims and minority groups, we want to be clear that we do not see victims as failures,” Ms. Sieben said. “We see you as brave. We see you as strong, resilient members of our community who are paving the way for future justice and freedom from modern-day slavery.”

First Published May 25, 2018, 10:27 p.m.