After a 15-year-old Texas girl was reportedly trafficked from a Dallas Mavericks game at the American Airlines Center (AAC) on April 8, Oklahoma City officials detained and accused eight people.
Nicole left the Mavericks game with her father to visit the restroom and never returned, according to a news statement from her family’s attorney, Zeke Fortenberry of the Fortenberry Firm, PLLC.
She had been missing for ten days until investigators discovered her on April 18 at an Extended Stay America motel in Oklahoma City.
Saniya Alexander, Melissa Wheeler, Chevaun Gibson, Kenneth Nelson, Sarah Hayes, Karen Gonzales, Thalia Gibson, and Steven Hill have been arrested in connection with the trafficking investigation by the Oklahoma City Police Department.
Gibson is accused of soliciting prostitution; Nelson, Hayes, and Gonzales are accused of human trafficking and the dissemination of child pornography; Hill is accused of rape; Gibson and Alexander are wanted on felony charges, and Wheeler is wanted on a robbery warrant.
“We appreciate the Oklahoma City Police Department’s efforts and our daughter’s safe return. My heart hurts for the unspeakable atrocities my daughter had to go through during the 11 days she was kidnapped, but I am grateful she is safe as we work toward her rehabilitation “Nicole’s mother said in a statement on May 5 that
Nicole’s father “immediately contacted AAC security, employees, and Dallas [p]olice [o]fficers of her missing” when she departed to use the restroom at the AAC and did not return. Nicole “had not been discovered” by the end of the game, and her father was told to return home.
Despite Nicole’s parents’ repeated appeals, Fortenberry claims the Dallas Police Department (DPD) never began an investigation into the matter.
Nicole’s father remarked to the Dallas Police Department, “My daughter was lost in Dallas, this is a Dallas case, yet they refused to open a case for her.”
According to the Dallas Police Department, an officer at the Mavericks game on April 8 was alerted to the 15-year-disappearance old’s and checked the event and site that night.
Beyond that, according to Texas Family Code (51.03 b. 3), “lost minors are examined as runaways unless there are circumstances that appear to be involuntary, such as a kidnapping or abduction.”
“The victim was repeatedly let down by the institutions and organizations involved in this case. At the Mavericks game, she should never have made eye contact with the man. Before the adolescent was trafficked to Oklahoma, the Dallas Police Department should have moved rapidly to investigate leads and find her “In a statement, Fortenberry said.
“By turning a blind eye to sexual exploitation taking on right in front of their eyes, the Extended Stay America motel in Oklahoma City put profits ahead of humanity. The victim’s life will never be the same again. We intend to hold those guilty accountable and effect change within these institutions so that this never occurs again.”
