Latest / Voices for Voices® / America’s Hidden Human Trafficking Crisis | Episode 134

Transcript

America’s Hidden Human Trafficking Crisis | Episode 134 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: I am your host, justin Allen Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Voices for Voices is the number one ranked podcast and TV show where people turn to for expert mental health recovery and career advancement intelligence.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Our show is all about teaching you insanely actionable techniques to help you prosper, grow yourself and self-worth and personal brand.
• 0:36
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• 0:49
  Speaker 1: As you can see, our show publishes new episodes every Wednesday that focus on case studies, real-life examples, actionable tips and in-the-trenches reports and interviews from subscribers just like you.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So if that sounds like something that could help you grow personally or professionally, then please join me by subscribing.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: This episode is part two from last week's episode on trafficking.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Our guests that are joining us are David and Amanda Solomon.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: The experiences and just really everything that was shared is so important.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I learned so much.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I had assumptions and those were changed by facts that are actually occurring day to day in real time as we have this conversation.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: So we'll jump into the bios of David and Amanda in case you missed the first part of our show last week.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: David Solomon has been a writer since he was 13 years old and has ghostwritten and done over 71 novels Just incredible.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: He is a survivor of human trafficking and is most known right now for speaking out on YouTube and TikTok about the subject in the Maddie Soto case.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: David was taken on January 12, 2012 from the state of Oregon.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: He escaped two weeks later from Canada, making it home on January 29, 2012.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Since then, he has helped police departments find missing children and help this from happening to other families as well.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Also with us today is Amanda Solomon.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: She is new to the writing world and has been part of it for the past two years.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: The past two years, she has witnessed the abuse that David has endured from his traffickers in real time.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: She enjoys writing as a way of coping with things, especially her own trauma from sexual assault and rape she endured as a kid and teen.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: As a kid and teen.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: She is a mother of one who has an eight year old son who also enjoys the writing world and wants to be a writer, just like his parents.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: A great big thank you at the outset to our Voices for Voices board member, jeremiah Tomko, who has made the previous show and this show possible.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: We would not be in the position to share this information, this topic, these stories, these experiences that are so important that need to be brought to the top of mind instead of the bottom of mind, brought higher amounts of charges instead of making trafficking a misdemeanor, taking police chiefs of police from writing threatening messages and emails to a person who was trafficked, which we would think a chief of police would want to help people and help those individuals who are possibly not able to help themselves at the current time due to the abuse that they have endured and that is going on.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: David has taken the Enough is Enough platform to talk about his story, to get his story, his experiences out there, to help as many children, individuals, return home from their traffickers and have the traffickers be have the full weight of law that should be very steep, with penalties for individuals that are a part of this, regarding whether it's an entertainer, an author, an individual who is famous for any reason that we have.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: So, dave and Amanda, thank you again for joining us on the show.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having us.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: You're welcome.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: You're welcome.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: So, david, if you can maybe continue on with how maybe some of that negative feedback that you're receiving on the Mattie Soto case and just in general for you know being a voice for you and so many others in need.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Sure, so when survivors speak out, they are persecuted and made fun of and belittled.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I think it's every day.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Right now on tiktok, someone has a new um something about uh, about making fun of uh survivors me or someone else now, and that's why survivors don't speak out and I've seen that, my family has seen that and I'm not afraid.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I mean it's terrifying what my trafficker almost had done recently.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: But you know, abuse and abusing power and authority for your narrative is not okay either.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: And so these people that are like him, they have all these connections and they just use it and they do it according to the will of God, in their own words.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: And it's sickening, and I'm not the only one.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: And to quote one of his churches on churchfindercom if you leave this church, you will leave prematurely dead.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: If your child gets away from this church, they will be cursed, or you will never see them again.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: From this church, they will be cursed or you will never see them again.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I think that sums up what this person does.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: And I have no problem naming them, because the whole world at the moment knows who I am and what I've said.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Their name is Brian Davis.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: They're a Christian fantasy author.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say this for the first time on a platform, because I got crucified when speaking about him and then he crucified me and my mom.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: So we're going to set the record straight.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: When I met him, he was not trafficking me.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: He seemed like a man of God and I'm going to set the record that maybe he was a man of God before money and greed and power came into play, when he was a small-time Christian pastor and writer.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: And then money came into play and then we started traveling the world from school to school and church to church and child to child, and then things got dark and then manipulation set in and me, other kids that looked up to him, were forced into some shall we put it awkward situations, detest our loyalty to him, and what that means is our parents raise us.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: He really targets the homeschoolers or the vulnerable, and the kids like to rebel, and so having us say a cuss word online because our parent says you can't say that or watch a video that your parent forbids it may seem like a small thing to you, but to an 11-year-old it creates that trust and that distrust towards the parent and the trust with the captor.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: I think what really crossed the lines was when I ghost wrote for him and other kids my writing as a symbol that I was giving all to God.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: And when I was taken, I was chloroformed right in front of my mom and it was reported and the police didn't do anything.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: And the reason the police didn't do anything is they went to his church and, to quote the chief of police, that's my pastor.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: You know, nothing's ever going to happen, whether it be FBI or anything else.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: It just won't ever happen.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: There's no crime that was committed and so me and other people, we were sold for two and a half weeks from hotel to hotel, from home to home to warehouse, and it was terrible.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: And what I really want to shed light on now is what I've gotten so crucified for and now I have the facts, so I want to throw those out is the paperwork.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: These traffickers do paperwork.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Let me explain.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: I got away three days later after I was trafficked and they were taking me up to seattle and I got away near my town in Oregon and unfortunately they had went to the Social Security office I didn't know and they somehow altered my Social Security number.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: They altered things some weird way and there's a paper trail that's really, really, really out there on how this happened.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: And I was arrested by the police that went to my church and they knew who I was and they knew that my mom had reported me because she was in chemo and she was calling the police every hour.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Right, I was missing and they knew.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: But according to the paperwork of my traffickers, I wasn't that person anymore.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: I was someone else that I didn't know and according to the paperwork, they were my guardians.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, my, my, my age was altered, everything was altered, and so I was cuffed and they said I was this elijah.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, they beat me up.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I had a lot of injuries and then they let me go and they said you have no choice but to go with these people and you're never going to see your mom again.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: And so I was forced back into a situation that became more hateful and more dangerous.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: And then, eventually, I was sold into Canada and I made it back on my own, and that was a miracle.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Most Canada, and I made it back on my own, and that was a miracle.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Most moments like that, traffickers like to alter paperwork and that's what we're seeing right now is the paperwork is altered.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Well, there's two times paperwork has been brought up.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: There was the one time where he does an interview with somebody which, remind you, this happened 10 years ago and they claimed to police that they never knew yeah david was now all of a sudden, since david started speaking out it.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, we did know him, but then they give an excuse.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Um, this one interview they did at the beginning of the year, when David first spoke out about Matty Soto, they mentioned that David used pastor's name and they say I think it's Seth.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: He goes.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: I have to check my documents.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Last time I checked, a birth certificate or social does not include who your youth pastor is Right.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: So they talk about David like they have a file on him, as if they are going to adopt him out.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: And another part that they talk about paperwork is they talk about filing a guardianship paperwork and the last time I checked, when you take somebody in to babysit, you're not filing guardianship, right.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: So they mentioned about going to the Social Security office to file guardianship paperwork on him.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: And David explains to me at this time that he was forced to sit in his car.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Well, sit in the car the white van and the one girl that had kidnapped him is the one that sat in there with him to make sure he didn't get out.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: So when they went into Social Security, they didn't even take David with them.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: And they're talking about this is the time when they find out he's not a minor like they thought he was.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: They thought he was 16.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: They're finding out that he's 18 or 19 at the time and they and then in the interview they use the word so we have to find another agency.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Why are we using the word agency?
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: So that alone sounds like you just told people that because he wasn't fitting the age group you were in charge of, you have to take him to somebody else.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: That to me, sounds that that's not a babysitting job, that's something else.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: And then it was very dangerous what he said.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Next, he said and that's when we did the paperwork and you know we had to do the paperwork.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: It doesn't say what the paperwork was.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: I have two socials now and this goes for a lot of trafficking survivors and two socials that aren't my own and that's a consequence of getting away and Brian has gone after my wife, amanda, our son, my friends.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: I can kind of speak a little on that.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been around for the past few years and my experience with it.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: I never thought that I would actually go through something.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: I managed David's injury because, with all the injuries that resulted in accidents and stuff that these people put him through for surviving, because he got away, they will track his mother down.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: You were in how many car accidents?
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: We lost 20 cars, but it was 42 car accidents according to police records according to police records.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: So after 42 car accidents and half and most of the time he would be in a in a coma.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: I have concussion, so and and concussions coma was twice okay so I manage his emails, because he can't look at a computer or a phone for very long because of the head trauma you can only imagine.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: So, as I'm, you know, managing the emails and I happen to see a couple come through from this, brian Davis, and they were threatening him stating I know you raped a boy and I'm going to prove it.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: You know these people.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: They put you in these vulnerable situations, take videos and pictures and then use it against you later on.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: So I've witnessed other emails where he says I'm going to get my daughter on your wife.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Why, what is the purpose?
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Like, like we're living our lives.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Why can't you leave us alone?
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: yes and um, that's all we've ever wanted and all david wants to do is live his life.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: This author.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: He made david who he was.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: He made him the fastest writer.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: David speed writes because this man was his mentor and taught him about writing.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: A lot of people have come out and said you know you're a liar for two reasons.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: One, you don't write 400 pages a day.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: I, uh, I can write a novel in a day.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: I actually want to.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I want to like video.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: That you know because I speak right and so it's so fast.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: And then two, my dad and Vietnam.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: My dad and Vietnam.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: At the time, when I was four, my dad came back and I thought it was Vietnam, because I was four, and he exploded.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Our home.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: You were told it was Vietnam from your mom.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and you know PDSD.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Whatever it was, he thought he was in the war and you know he torched our home.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: We got carbon monoxide and we were hospitalized and, according to the reports, we did die.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: There's a newspaper article about it.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: And then we were, you know, brought back to life.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: My mom even states that it was through prayer, and there was many things that took place.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: And then we had to have hyperbaric oxygen therapy for nine months.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: We were transferred from our home in Reno to Southdale, virginia, to treat it and you know there was a lot of complications and then you know we were ultimately healed because of that treatment from a lot of it.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: But food allergies was a big one and a lot of people, including my trafficker, have crucified it and said you're a liar, because your dad couldn't come from Vietnam because Vietnam was over.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Well, I was four years old when my mom said Vietnam and I've come to learn that he served in other wars after that the Korean.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: War.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: The Korean War Project.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: It was a special forces, so he stayed in Vietnam and then he, you know, he traveled and then got very sick and became a very sick person.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: So my point is, when survivors speak out, um, when survivors speak out, guess what they get targeted like right, left and center well, that's so.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: I left my home in Ohio to meet David and uh to work for David and um.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: My mom didn't like that.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: She didn't like the fact that I was living a new life, wanting to be on my own because I was like I had stated I had um, I'd lived through my own sexual um and I was with my husband.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: We were married six years.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: He had a stroke from not taking care of himself at 33.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: And I lived a marriage where he told me, nobody will love you like I do.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: But then he's texting other women wanting to be with them.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: And that's when I was telling myself myself nobody's going to love me.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: But then I started thinking, if nobody loved me like you did, a dog can love me better at this point because you're not reciprocating what I'm giving.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: So I left the marriage, realizing it was wrong, especially since my son at the time was sitting there telling me that I was being treated like a jerk.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, well, if he's seeing this, then that's really bad.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Like he's even seeing this.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: And I keep telling myself we can't be in a broken marriage, you know whatever.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: So I left the abuse and that's when I started my life over with David.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: I had my son.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: We're going to find a new, better life.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: Well, that's when Brian Davis searched my family out and he went to my parents and, all of a sudden, my mother keeps email, emailing me, sending me text messages that I need to come home.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: And I'm like no, like, I'm 30 years old, I'm not like some teenager.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: And so she then tells me she came across some money to be able to send me home.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Now we're talking about somebody that had twenty thousand dollars in credit card debt my whole life.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: So how is it we now all of a sudden came across some money?
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm now finding out.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: She established a relationship with this Brian Davis, and one day she even told me that Brian Davis would be a better parent than you me that Brian Davis would be a better parent than you.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: This is the same guy that took David and did those horrible things to him, and for a mother to say that about her grandson and her child just to this day.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: She keeps trying to get me to come home and I know it's because she wants to traffic my child and make more money.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: And that's what it seems to be is.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: They offered her money to try to coax us to come back and now she's seeing the money and it's disgusting.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: It's disgusting what a parent will do.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: When I sat here and told David that would never happen, my mother would never do that, but I'm seeing it happen in real life.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: I'm seeing she's on a TikTok account with Brian Davis and they're going live together.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Putting out my car information, putting out my license plate.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: You are putting my life in danger because you want something that you can't have.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: And they will stop at nothing, these people are dangerous.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they will stop at nothing but to twist their narrative.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: And the other thing I want to put is they will change and alter your story and so they have put it out that I am not David Solomon and my mom did not raise me me and I'm not a writer.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: I'm Cody.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: And in their own video they said they abducted me because they thought I was a minor boy named Cody.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: This is why I wanted to bring this up, because this happens to trafficking victims all the time.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: They will target you, they may think you're someone else or look like someone else and they will abduct you because of that.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: They try to change your identity also, so you become this person that they think you are, and it's a uh, a brainwashing, in their own words technique that's used and I'm this Cody.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I'm so.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to cut you all work we're at.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: We're, at the time, close to 30 minutes.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: You're good, you're good.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: So when I thank Dave and Amanda Solomon for this powerful episode, I'm speechless.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: This is Justin Allen Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, and please be a voice for you or somebody in need.