An illegal immigrant has accused the former Fairfax County police chief and three ex-officers of being clients of a prostitution enterprise. The immigrant testified that she was one of the victims of this sex trafficking ring, and accused the four law enforcement personnel of covering it up.
This week, a federal jury in Alexandria, Va., heard testimony from a woman named Jane Doe as part of a civil case against the former Fairfax County Police Department officers.
The officers named in the case were Chief Edwin Roessler, Chief James Baumstark, and officers Michael Barbazette and Jason Mardocco.
A lawyer for Roessler and Baumstark dismissed the claims as “preposterous.” None of the men have been criminally charged.
During her trial, the woman testified that Hazel Sanchez had lured her from Costa Rica to Virginia to work as a nanny and escort for wealthy clients.
Sanchez’s 2019 guilty plea alleges that women were forced to have sex with 17 men every day, including dangerous and degrading sex acts.
Sanchez, who admitted to running “unlawful prostitution activity,” confiscated the passports of five women. She threatened to call on US immigration authorities if her demands were not met.
A lawsuit filed by Jane Doe alleges that the retired Fairfax police chief and three officers protected this human trafficking ring until it was busted by the FBI in 2019.
Specifically, Doe argued that Roessler, Baumstark, Barbazette, and Mardocco obstructed efforts regarding Sanchez’s investigation and prosecution.
According to her, all four officers of the women hired sex workers through the same madam. When she took the stand, the woman cried while describing the degrading acts Sanchez forced her to perform on clients under threat. She also claimed the officers failed in their duty by not stopping the ring.
After their phone numbers were discovered on Sanchez’s phone, Barbazette and Mardocco resigned from the department and admitted to being her clients.
Baumstark and Roessler’s lawyer, Kimberly P. Baucom, said her clients were only added to Doe’s lawsuit after it gained publicity, saying “there isn’t a shred of physical evidence” linking them to the case.
Additionally, the lawyer claims that Doe was “not a victim of trafficking” but a “volunteer sex worker” who falsely claimed to have been victimized.