Miami-Dade human trafficking unit gets first conviction, sentence

A Miami Beach man who forced a slew of women into prostitution in South Florida and Nevada will spend 15 years in prison for beating and strangling one of them.
A judge on Tuesday sentenced Robert Burton, 34, who had been found guilty of domestic battery by strangulation, deriving support from prostitution, kidnapping and interfering with parental custody.
His conviction at trial was the first for Miami-Dade prosecutors’ Human Trafficking Unit, said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. She said many of the victims are homegrown runaways.
“It’s very much like domestic violence. It’s control. It’s terror. It’s beating,” she said. “It’s affection — with torture.”
At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Burton forced at least six women into prostitution all while fathering several children with three of them. He faced similar charges in Nevada, but was not convicted in that state.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/26/3255339/miami-dade-human-trafficking-unit.html#storylink=cpy
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Zimmerman’s lawyer: Donations to website totaled $200,000

The defense lawyer for George Zimmerman said Thursday night that his client had received about $200,000 through donations to his website.

Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, near Orlando, fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin of Miami Gardens on Feb. 26, after confronting the teen, whom he believed to be suspicious. Trayvon was not armed.

Sanford police cited Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law in not initially charging Zimmerman with killing Trayvon. Angela Corey, a special prosecutor appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, earlier this month charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder.

Thursday night, Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that at first he had been told that Zimmerman had two accounts: one with $700, another with about $2,000.

But while trying to shut down all of Zimmerman’s Internet presence, his client asked him what to do with his PayPal accounts.

Days before Corey filed her charges, a website called TheRealGeorgeZimmerman.com sprang up. The website, since removed, said visitors could use a PayPal link to donate money to Zimmerman.

O’Mara told Cooper that the account contained $200,000 and $204,000.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/26/2770539/zimmermans-lawyer-donations-to.html#storylink=cpy

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