Reston Spring

Reston Spring
Reston Spring

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Fairfax County Police Department implicated in sex trafficking ring.

In a civil lawsuit in federal court seeking restitution for damages and other causes, a sex trafficked woman and a former FCPD officer allege the a number of officers of the Fairfax County Police Department, including retired FCPD Chief Edwin Roessler, participated in a sex trafficking ring protecting those leading the ring, engaged in sex with women being trafficked, and obstructed local and federal investigation of the ring. The attorney representing "Jane Doe," the complainant, filed an amended complaint on December 17, 2021, naming many of those alleged to have been engaged in these efforts and some specifics of their activities. The defendants named so far are Michael O. Barbazette, Jason J. Mardocco, James Baumstark, Vincent Scianna, and Edwin C. Roessler. Here is how the complaint begins:
1. Plaintiff Jane Doe brings this action for damages resulting from sex trafficking. Jane Doe was trafficked to the United States and forced to work as a prostitute, mostly in Fairfax County, Virginia. At least some of the defendants, at the time officers within the Fairfax County Police Department (“FCPD”), provided security to the trafficking ring that ensnared Jane Doe, secured sexual services from trafficked women, and may also have extorted money from the ring’s leadership. During and after Jane Doe’s trafficking, high ranking officers within the department conspired to cover up aspects of sex trafficking in Fairfax, and the complicity of county police officers in the work of the trafficking ring, thereby becoming themselves complicit in its work to the point of permitting two knowingly highly compromised officers to retire quietly on pensions. The officers complicit in this coverup included the then chief of police, who was the policy-making individual for Fairfax County with regard to law enforcement, including the county’s approach to sex trafficking occurring within its borders. The result was the creation of a county custom, practice or usage of tolerating sex trafficking and suppressing investigation thereof over a period of time.

Doe v. Fairfax Police Officer 1 by TerryMaynard on Scribd

The full text of the amended complaint is available here.