Office of Inspector General, Florida Dept. of Corrections
Via Fax
Re: John
Meekins
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Jody Williams.
I run the group listed above, along with the hotline associated with it. Our group, and hotline, was the first of it’s
kind for adults to call when seeking help to exit the sex industry for whatever
reason – sex trafficking included. This
of course was before the term “sex trafficking” was even coined mind you. It took us 13 years of a lot of time, money,
and huge sacrifices in my life to see us get federal recognition for sex
trafficking being real as it did when the Trafficking Act of 2000 was
passed. A true game changer because up
until that point the system viewed us only, and solely, as “criminals” and
never a “victim” before that recognition was achieved.
I’m writing you because of a matter of deep concern to
me. I was told by a guard, or ex-guard,
John Meekins, he was “played a tape
recording of a call and shown screen shots of our conversation” done supposedly
by me of conversations John and I have had in the past. John told me he lost his job because of this,
and spoke of another trafficking program which he says will not happen because
of supposedly this very thing.
I have a real problem with this. I want you to know that NO ONE has contacted
me to verify if I said or did any of this.
I’m especially horrified that I now have this man not only quite upset
at me about this, but he’s also been completely blasting me within the trafficking
field telling people I had contacted the Office of the Inspector General
claiming he “was a pimp” and that he “worked for Sex Workers Outreach
Project”. Two things I don’t even
believe about John, let alone would I be calling up your office making such a
complaint about it.
If I think someone “is a pimp” I generally don’t do a
damn thing about it to be honest EXCEPT offer to help them. Sex Workers Anonymous is a 12 step group for
men, women and transgender adults who want to leave ANY part of the sex industry for ANY
reason. I’m going to point you to my
YouTube page where I have a tape of my appearance on a Donahue located at ww.tinyurl.com/sexworkersanonymous
I did in 1992. I’d like you to note the
African American man on that panel who speaks about his membership in Sex
Workers Anonymous who helped him stop being a pimp.
Yes Sex Workers Anonymous welcomes in pimps as well as
prostitutes. Madams too as evidenced by
Jeane Palfrey’s membership in SWA (the D.C. Madam), for about two years before
her death. I say “death” and not
“suicide” because I believe she was murdered before she could testify at the
Ethics Hearing about the names in her “Black Book”. Jeane didn’t reveal names of “johns” in that
book, but instead that of her traffickers.
She had been trying to prove to the public that she was being forced to
work as a madam by men within our own government, just as Alex Adams had also
been, as well as myself. Meaning I
believe that sometimes someone who is working as a pimp or madam can be a sex
trafficking victim sometimes – coerced in some manner to be acting in that
capacity.
Which is why we don’t discriminate in SWA as to who we
help or don’t help. It’s in fact a
fundamental difference between us and many of these new “trafficking” programs
that have popped up now grant money has been made available to groups who will
only focus on the prostitute as “victim” – completely leaving those forced into
other positions within the sex industry out in the cold, or even demonized as
is being done these days by these other groups against madams and pimps.
Our very reputation is on the line here when I’m having
someone come to me and tell me they have been fired over me supposedly coming
to the authorities to file a complaint against someone “being a pimp”. In
other words, this goes to the very core of the confidentiality issue that I
offer anyone who calls us.
The ONLY time I have done such things has been under two
conditions and two conditions only – that first of all of this person has
refusing any of our help, and the second being that they are actively enslaving
others who wish our help to leave. In
the whole time I’ve been running SWA, I can count on one hand the times I’ve
had to do any actions against a pimp or trafficker and John Meekins isn’t one
of those incidents.
I did try and get an investigation going against Peter
Todd for example. This man murdered at
least three prostitutes I’m aware of in Las Vegas in my opinion. I had multiple other prostitutes come to me
asking for my help to escape this man.
Because he was also operating as an informant for the police – these
women were unable to not only get any protection from him, but in fact the
police were refusing to lift one finger to help them because of his informant
position, as well as do anything about the women he murdered.
Leaving me with having to see what I could do in order to
have him arrested so as to protect these other women who were not only in great
reasonable fear of their lives – but also having to fight against the fact he
had police protection while he was actively still trafficking women from Canada
down into the states. A man I have been so open about going after
that I even set up the website www.pimpalert.com
to warn others about him once I realized the police wouldn’t lift a finger to
help his victims.
I CERTAINLY don’t consider John Meekins not only a pimp,
but not a pimp I’d even think about going to the police about for help
against! So I have a huge problem
here. I have a huge problem in that John
Meekins is running around thinking I made such a complaint, I got him fired,
and this complaint is being used now as an excuse for not letting some other
trafficking program get off the ground.
I especially have a problem over the fact this is making it appear I’m
not offering our members the confidentiality that I do – even for those who are
pimps who might be calling us for help one day.
I have been very open about the fact I’ve been
impersonated many times in the past.
I’ve got at least three articles published carrying what appears to be
an interview with me I never did. I
wouldn’t mind actually – but these interviews state things that are completely
contrary to what I believe, and what SWA stands for. These false interviews have been extremely
harmful to me and SWA actually and if I could reach the reporter responsible
for them I’d slap him with a lawsuit. I
say this because I have tried to locate him for just this purpose. After what happened with people like Stephen
Glass it’s quite well known now that sometimes writers, reporters, etc. do
completely fake whole stories. Celebrities have stories faked about them all
the time.
So I’m more than a little upset at papers like “The Fix”
to name one who published two of these fake interviews with me. I’d sue them but they’ve been bought by Sober
Media and I’m sure won’t be around for me to sue over this damage.
However, your office is still around. I need
to talk to someone about this. Please
contact me at the above information at your earliest convenience and let me
know first of all if this actually happened.
If so, I want to know the agent’s name who did this to John and drug my
name into this. I also want to let you
know that NO ONE has contacted me to
verify I actually spoke to anyone there.
So we have a few things to talk about.
Sincerely,
Jody Williams
