| For Immediate Release September 4, 2013 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718Farrah Emami Spokesperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486
|
GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARD RECIPIENT NAMED YOUTH AMBASSADOR FOR “KEEP CALM AND BEAT H.E.A.T. ROCKING & RALLY”
SANTA ANA – The Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) announced today that high school junior Julianna Nagle will serve as the Youth Ambassador for the “Keep Calm and Beat H.E.A.T. Rocking & Rally” on Sept. 9, 2013, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Twila Reid Park, 3100 West Orange Avenue, Anaheim.
Nagle, a 16-year-old junior at Huntington Beach High School, is a 12-year Girl Scout who has received her Bronze, Silver, and Gold Girl Scout Award. As a student, she has also received a Presidential Service Award, is the Executive Vice President of the Huntington Beach AssisTeens League, and is a board member for the National Honors Society for her school.
To earn her Gold Girl Scout Award, Nagle created an anti-human trafficking walk in partnership with three non-profits. Nagle’s work was profiled by the Orange County Register and the walk was attended in July 2013 by over 100 participants.
As Youth Ambassador, Nagle will attend the Rocking & Rally and create awareness about the event and human trafficking. She will hold discussions with leaders of her schools’ Parent Teacher Association and education foundations, and promote awareness through social media outreach to her friends and associates.
“It warms my heart that this bright young woman is getting involved at such a young age and is making an impact on public safety,” said District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
EVENT DETAILS
This year, the OCDA will host this first-of-its-kind event along with its co-sponsors to fight against Human Trafficking and Exploitation (H.E.A.T.) as part of a new initiative to go after perpetrators of human trafficking and exploitation with vigor, while taking a comprehensive approach to solve the problem and bring community stakeholders together.
Twila Reid Park was chosen as the location because it is less than a mile from Beach Boulevard and Ball Road in Anaheim, an area known to law enforcement to be a high-prostitution area and frequently used by individuals who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain.
The OCDA announced in April 2013 that it was forming the Human Exploitation and Trafficking (HEAT) Unit, which targets perpetrators who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers. Commercial sex trafficking is the second most lucrative criminal enterprise behind narcotics trafficking. Often the perpetrators are gang members and/or career criminals.
The HEAT Unit also targets defendants who create a demand for prostitution by soliciting and purchasing sex, which increases the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children. The HEAT Unit uses a tactical plan called PERP: Prosecution of human trafficking perpetrators and sex purchasers; Education for law enforcement to properly handle human trafficking and pandering cases; Resources from public-private partnerships to raise public awareness about human trafficking and provide assistance to the victims; and Publicity, to inform the public and send a message to human traffickers that this crime cannot be perpetrated without suffering severe consequences.