CUYAHOGA COUNTY, Ohio — Editor's Note: The above video was recorded in January as part of the WKYC Human Trafficking Awareness Forum.
A Cuyahoga County grand jury has indicted a man and a woman on charges of trafficking multiple female adult victims out of Warrensville Heights motels, county prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley announced Thursday.
Nicholas Hutchins, 38, is accused of using multiple identifications to rent out motels as part of a trafficking ring. Nadine Siggres, 39, is accused of assisting Hutchins in running the trafficking ring by supervising the victims when Hutchins was not present. Both were arrested on July 7 and are currently being held at the Cuyahoga County Jail awaiting arraignment.
Hutchins was indicted on multiple charges including several counts of various human trafficking charges, compelling and promoting prostitution, drug possession and weapons charges. Siggres was indicted on four counts each of trafficking and prostitution charges and one count of possessing criminal tools.
“Our office is proud to be in partnership with the Cuyahoga Regional Human Trafficking Task Force (CRHTTF),” said O’Malley in a statement announcing the indictments. “Through the dedicated work of this task force and our law enforcement partners, we are able to make our community a safer place.”
O’Malley’s office said CRHTTF agents arrested Hutchins in the parking lot of a motel on Northfield Road in Warrensville Heights, finding over 100 grams of crack cocaine hidden in his pants. Officers also executed search warrants of Hutchins' vehicle and residents, allegedly finding drugs and “hundreds of rounds of ammunition and multiple guns,” the prosecutor’s office says.
“The Sheriff’s Department is proud to be a part of this task force and offer our assistance to help remove these offenders from our streets,” said Cuyahoga County Interim Sheriff Steven Hammett. “We remain dedicated to holding them accountable and bringing justice for all victims of sexual violence in our community.”
In the pair’s indictment documents, the State of Ohio maintains the defendants knowingly subjected three unnamed victims to “involuntary servitude” and that Hutchins and Sigress knew the Jane Does would be “compelled to engage in sexual activity for hire.”
The CRHTTF – a task force comprised of several law enforcement and investigative agencies including the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office – were tipped off on the alleged human trafficking ring as part of “Operation Fouled Out,” a cooperative effort by the CRHTTF and its parent agency, the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, that took place during the February NBA All-Star Weekend in Cleveland, prosecutors said.
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