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Sugar Cookie

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Tucked inside a neighborhood in a small town just north of New York City, Hawthorne Cedar Knolls was on idyllic, green grounds. It was landscaped to give some peace and stability to the emotionally troubled teenagers who were placed there.

But in recent years, Hawthorne, located in the town of Mount Pleasant, began experiencing unusually high rates of teenagers going missing from its campus. Staff, law enforcement officials and advocates for children said they knew that some of the missing residents had fallen victim to sex traffickers. Many of the girls in the rehabilitation center had been placed there in the first place to rescue them from the sex trade.

On Thursday, the breadth of a pipeline carrying young women out of Hawthorne and into prostitution became clearer. Nineteen people were charged in a sex-trafficking ring that exploited young women and girls as young as 13 years old, federal prosecutors said.

At least 15 victims were in the child welfare system, including nine who were residents of Hawthorne, the prosecutors said.

The defendants named in a series of indictments unsealed this week face charges including sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy, which carry maximum sentences of up to life in prison.

The indictments do not name the residential center in Westchester County, referring to it only as “Facility-1,” but it is Hawthorne, an official at the center and two other people briefed on the matter said. Some of the defendants are in their 20s; the two oldest are 59, prosecutors said. None of the defendants were staff members of Hawthorne.

One defendant, Hubert Dupigny, 34, recruited a 16-year-old girl from Hawthorne who worked for him as a prostitute until he was arrested in December 2016, prosecutors wrote. At that point, the girl went to work for his brother, Hensley Dupigny, 29, who posted advertisements for her on Backpage.com and collected most of her earnings, the prosecutors said.

A prosecutor said at a court hearing in August for Hensley Dupigny that the alleged conspiracy was “particularly egregious” because the defendants sought out minors in the social services system, often children with behavioral or emotional problems who had become wards of the state.

The Jewish Board announced it would close Hawthorne earlier this year, following pressure from state legislators, severe sanctions from the state child welfare office and growing complaints from residents of Mount Pleasant about teenagers wandering the town, particularly as they headed to trains back to New York City.

In 2016, the town began charging the Jewish Board and another nonprofit that runs a nearby residential treatment center $250 for every call about missing children in an effort to push the nonprofits to beef up security.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/...ne-cedar-knolls.html?module=MoreInSection_AMP

I did consultation work there as well as the Jerome M. Goldsmith Center RTF which is located on the same campus. I also worked at the second residential treatment center they discuss in regards to security.
 
All 19 defendants are from New York City. None of them worked at the Westchester facility, officials said.

Bronx residents Ruben Morciglio, Cimmie Wright and Steven Lesane
Bronx residents Sean Merchant, Reuben Sands, Martique McGriff, Jermaine Myrie
Brooklyn residents Saeed Norris, Carlton Vanier, Lloyd Kidd, Andrienne Roberts, Christopher Bullock and Dariel Braham Brooklyn residents Hubert Dupigny, Hensley Dupigny, Nazeer Vickers and Jabari Kennedy
Queens residents Luidi Benjamin and Lawrence Walsh.

The charges include conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; sex trafficking of a minor; and sex trafficking by force, threats of force, fraud and coercion. Each defendant faces a minimum of 10 or 15 years in prison up to life in prison.
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2018/12/13/westchester-sex-trafficking-arrests/2300625002/
 
I spent 5 years as a day student there. I graduated in 2010. I hope they close down that fucking school. My high school years were miserable, and I don't trust people now more than ever, and was done with school. Now I'm looking at trade school, now that my health issues are under control and after intense therapy. That school traumatized me, and my Complex PTSD is severe because of what happened there. It's been that way for years.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/...ne-cedar-knolls.html?module=MoreInSection_AMP

I did consultation work there as well as the Jerome M. Goldsmith Center RTF which is located on the same campus. I also worked at the second residential treatment center they discuss in regards to security.
From what years? I was a day student from 2005-2010. I may remember you. My name is Chelsea.
 
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@Kitsune Silver thank you for revisiting that horrible moment of your life to update us a bit.
I am sure it was not easy.
No one should be preyed upon like those in that horror show.
May you be well and steadily progress positively.

I admire you for your strength and resilience!
Thank you. I wasn't preyed upon, but many of my schoolmates were.
 
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