Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — A woman chained to a stripper pole. A man with four wives. Child pornography photos.

This is what authorities stumbled upon during a raid in Detroit, where a house-of-horrors tale is unfolding in federal court, with prosecutors accusing one man of enslaving women, selling them for sex on the Internet and hurting children by taking sexually explicit photos of them and sharing them with others.

The case started with West Bloomfield, Mich., police investigating identity-theft crimes but turned into something much bigger when officers from the suburban police department raided the home weeks ago and found a woman chained by the neck to a pole.

They would eventually uncover a sex trafficking operation that, according to federal court documents, worked like this: The man advertised women on the Internet, offering them for sex. Men would show up at his house and pick which one they liked. But they paid the homeowner first — in cash.

The suspect is Ryon Travis, a 32-year-old unemployed Detroit man with seven children — none of whom he has custody of — and four women he claims are his wives. Among them is a 25-year-old woman who, prosecutors allege, was found chained to a stripper pole in the living room of his house. When asked why she was chained, Travis told police he was “about to get freaky with her,” court records show.

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Travis wound up in chains instead.

In U.S. District Court on Monday, Travis appeared in handcuffs, belly chains and shackles. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was transported back to jail to await trial in a case that prosecutors say is more commonplace than people realize.

“Sex trafficking occurs all around us, and the victims are sometimes hiding in plain sight,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, noting that the traffickers go to great lengths to keep their victims quiet.

“The victims often feel powerless to flee because the trafficker exerts power over them — physical violence, threats, drugs, fear of arrest — or even shame."

But the public — perhaps more than anyone else — can help spot these victims, authorities stress, noting common places for human traffickers include construction sites, restaurants, elder care centers, nail salons, agricultural fields, and hotels.

"An educated public can help law enforcement rescue individuals in these situations and ensure those committing these acts are brought to justice," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Marlon Miller, who oversees human trafficking cases in Michigan and Ohio as head of Homeland Security Investigations. "HSI investigates a wide array of crimes, but the trafficking of women and girls is among the most sinister. Few crimes so damage their victims and undermine basic human decency."

'This was a brothel'

Travis is charged with sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and producing, possessing and transporting child pornography. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison, or a minimum of 15 years.

According to court documents, Travis was under investigation by the West Bloomfield police for fraud and identity theft when the officers executed a search warrant March 2 at his home. Three women were in the house that day. Travis referred to them as his "wives," records show.

During the search, police seized two cellphones, both of which the women said belonged to Travis. Pornographic images of children younger than 12 were found on the phones, including multiple images of an adult male having sex with a young girl while she was lying on a distinctive blue and white sheet. A sheet with that same description was seized from the house that day.

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On March 21, authorities conducted a second search at Travis' home. That's when they found a 25-year-old woman with a heavy metal chain around her neck with a padlock, attached to a stripper pole, records show. Federal agents unchained the woman and interviewed her. Here, according to court documents, is what she told them:

The woman said that she had lived with Travis and three other women for the past two years. She said that she had been chained up for the past two weeks because she had tried to escape. When Travis caught her, she told authorities, he beat her and held her in bondage. She also said that Travis posted ads on the Internet advertising that he had four women for sale. Men would come to the house, and Travis would line the four women up and let the men choose one. But they would pay him first — in cash.

The woman also said that Travis took her to the bank every month when her $700 Social Security disability check arrived, made her cash the check and then stole the money from her.

"This was essentially a brothel or a house of prostitution," a federal prosecutor previously argued in court.

'I choose not to do business with this court'

At a March 23 detention hearing, at which a judge decided whether to release Travis on bond or lock him up pending trial, a defiant Travis tried to have his lawyer dismissed.

"It is against my religion to be represented by someone of another nation, so I may as well represent myself," Travis said. "I'm a natural-born human of the American land. I choose not to do business with this court. I ask that this case be dismissed."

The judge wouldn't hear of it.

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"Your request is denied," Magistrate Judge Mona Majzoub told the defendant.

At the request of the prosecution, she then ordered him detained.

"You are a danger to children. You are a danger to women. And you are a danger to people who are helpless in your presence," Majzoub told the defendant, later noting: "The weight of the evidence is strong."

Travis' court-appointed lawyer, Stacey Studnicki, urged the judge to be "skeptical" in accepting the words of accusers who had not yet been cross-examined. Travis's main accuser — the woman who was found chained to the pole — was not present at the detention hearing. His lawyer also asked the judge to consider letting Travis live with his wife, whom she identified as "Miss Moore." The woman was not present.

"I understand that these are very serious charges," said Studnicki. "However he does have Miss Moore, his wife. They do live together in the home."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward wouldn't hear of it.

"It's true, that the victim is not here or subject to cross-examination," said Woodward. But, she noted, the judge had seen photographs of the woman in the home, "which speaks for itself."

The judge agreed.