By Courtney Hessler, The Herald- Dispatch
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia lawmakers were warned Monday of human trafficking and misconceptions surrounding the issue.
In a presentation to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Children and Families on Monday, Bob Leslie, counsel for the House of Delegates, educated lawmakers on the risk of human trafficking in West Virginia.
In previous employment Leslie oversaw trafficking cases through the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office. Through his experience, Leslie said most people view human trafficking as someone selling someone off into sexual slavery, a storyline often promoted in movies, but the reality is the cases are much more subtle and often overlooked.
“Our instinct is to basically tamp that down, it’s like ‘no, that can’t be what that is,’ and we make apologies for those things,” he said. “The human being is the only animal that will ignore its instinct.” …