For years she was trafficked, sold to others for sex by her husband. The woman said she used drugs, leading to an addiction, and was stabbed several times during an attack.
"I couldn't even walk out of my house without being high because I was so afraid," she said.
On Tuesday the woman began a new chapter, becoming the first graduate of Nashville's human trafficking intervention court.
The program works to identify people who are arrested for crimes such as prostitution or drug offenses but who prosecutors say are sucked into a lifestyle they learned because they are victims of human trafficking. The court program provides resources and puts a focus on treatment.
"I was given a choice and an opportunity to come into this program and I came in with fear and trepidation, but also honesty, open mindedness and willingness," the woman said.
Prosecutors and the woman asked that the woman's name not be published out of concern for her safety, saying the man who trafficked her is not in custody. Her story was corroborated by General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland, who oversees the program.
There are a dozen women participating, Assistant District Attorney General Tammy Meade said. The program began earlier this year amid ongoing efforts in Nashville and statewide to combat the crime.
"The women who come to Nashville, live in Nashville, are just passing through Nashville, who are caught in the cycle of prostitution and human trafficking, we owe this to them," Meade said.
"We have met these women, we have fallen in love with these women, it has been our honor and our privilege to guide this woman here today to get her into a healthy and safer lifestyle, where she didn't need a hand out," Meade said during a Tuesday graduation ceremony in Moreland's courtroom. "She just needed a hand up. We said here. And we love you. And we want to help you."
The program is formally named Cherished HEARTS.
"Working together we put our human trafficking intervention court within the reach of everyone in Nashville that wants and needs to transform their lives," Moreland said. "We can reform our justice system, lift up our city one neighborhood at a time, one offender at a time, one sweet cherished heart at a time."
The first graduate went through extensive drug treatment and counseling since her arrest, got a job and found stable housing, Meade said. She is working on getting her driver's license back.
"I don't have to walk in fear anymore," the woman said during the ceremony. "And I don't have to go back to doing the things that I did just to have a roof over our heads, or some misconception of love."
And she has found a way to move beyond the physical scars that trafficking left. The scars from where she was stabbed are now covered by tattoos of butterflies, she said, a symbol of rebirth.
Combating trafficking
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has launched a campaign to end human trafficking. Find more information here.
There is also a Tennessee Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline: 855-558-6484.
