INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Religious communities in Indiana and across the globe will recognize this Sunday, Feb. 8, as the first-ever International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller is urging churches, congregations, synagogues, mosques and other religious assemblies in Indiana to participate and demand an end to this $150 billion industry that victimizes countless men, women and children each year.

Though it may seem like a distant crime, Zoeller said, Indiana communities are not immune to human trafficking. State, federal and nonprofit agencies investigated more than 100 human trafficking tips in Indiana last year. The average age at which children in the United States first become victims of sex trafficking is 12-14, and 83 percent of sex trafficking victims in the U.S. are U.S. citizens.

“For too long these horrific crimes flourished largely unnoticed by the public, and thankfully that is starting to change,” Zoeller said. “We now know that human trafficking is happening right here at home, and its victims are our most vulnerable citizens. Being aware of these crimes, knowing the warning signs and refusing to tolerate the commercial sex industry that fuels trafficking are all critical to this fight. Support from the religious community will help spread the message far and wide that these crimes must come to an end.”

The Indiana Protection for Abused and Trafficked Humans (IPATH) Task Force, of which Zoeller is co-chair, distributed flyers about the Day of Prayer and Awareness to faith groups across the state. The Catholic community has made this effort a priority, and more than 400 Catholic churches in Indiana have been encouraged to include special prayers this Sunday.

“The Catholic communities of Indiana support the efforts of our Attorney General, Greg Zoeller, to call the attention of all Hoosiers to the heinous reality of human trafficking,” said Archbishop Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R. “As incredible as it seems, the enslavement of human beings continues across the world and is manifest even in the United States of America. The essence of human trafficking is the denial of personal freedoms and, while this abuse assumes many forms, the common denominator is the goal of exploiting human beings through coercion and or force. The Catholic Church has long spoken out against the depravity of human trafficking and slavery. We are grateful that our Attorney General is determined not to look the other way.”

The International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking was designated as such by The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the International Union of Superiors General.

The IPATH Task Force offers trainings on how to identify and respond to human trafficking, and collaborates on ways to reduce human trafficking for sex and labor in Indiana. In 2014, the Task Force trained nearly 2,000 people statewide on identifying and preventing human trafficking, which included members of law enforcement, the medical community, child-care and education professionals, social workers and others.

Zoeller has supported legislative changes in Indiana that make it easier to prosecute and hold traffickers accountable and also serves on the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) Standing Committee Against Human Trafficking. He also created a public pledge in Indiana to promote zero tolerance for the sex industry called “Don’t Buy the Lie.”

Individuals and organizations can pledge their commitment in the fight against human trafficking here: www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/humantrafficking. For more information about the Attorney General’s human trafficking prevention efforts, visit www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/humantrafficking. To schedule a human trafficking prevention training event or to learn more about these efforts, contact humantraffickinginfo@atg.in.gov.

Human trafficking tips can be reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at: 888-3737-888 (text BeFree- 233733). If it is an emergency, call 911. If a child may be in danger, call the Indiana Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline: 1-800-800-5556. Tips can also be reported to the Indiana Attorney General’s Office by emailing humantraffickingtip@atg.in.gov.

Dave Stafford for www.theindianalawyer.com

An Indiana Court of Appeals panel Friday stripped a maternal grandparent of visitation rights, finding she had no standing to seek visitation. The parents of the child had divorced, and the father remarried shortly after the mother’s death.

After her petition was initially denied by a special judge, Hamilton Superior Judge William Hughes granted a motion to correct error and granted Melba Sutliffe’s petition for grandparent visitation. The court allowed her visitation one weekend a month, one week in summer and extra time around holidays. The child’s father, Kirk R. Jocham, appealed.

According to the record, Jocham and Sutliffe’s daughter, Stephenie Jocham, had one child, K.J., in 2004. The Jochams, both attorneys, divorced in 2008, and Stephenie died in 2011 from a rare form of cancer. That same year, K.J.’s father remarried, and a year later he and stepmother Emily adopted the child.

At the trial court, Hughes ruled Stephenie “was, remains, and always will be K.J.’s biological mother. Accordingly, [Sutliff] is the ‘maternal grandparent’ under I.C. 31-9-2-77. She may seek, pursuant to I.C. § 31-17-5-1, visitation rights with K.J. because the child’s parent is deceased, and because [Sutliff] is the biological parent of the child’s deceased biological parent.”

But the appeals panel reversed, finding that Sutliff filed her petition after K.J. had been adopted and a new birth certificate was issued listing her father and stepmother as parents.

“There is no question that Sutliff is the parent of Stephenie, who is the biological parent of K.J. Furthermore, there is no question that Jocham and Stephenie’s marriage was dissolved in 2008 or that Stephenie is now deceased,” Judge Margret Robb wrote for the unanimous panel.

“Accordingly, had Sutliff filed a petition for grandparent visitation at any time after Jocham and Stephenie filed for divorce up to the day Emily’s adoption of K.J. was final, we would agree with the trial court that she had the right to petition for visitation rights and that any visitation rights granted to her as a result of the petition survived the adoption.”

Sutliff had no notice of the adoption petition, which the panel wrote isn’t required by statute. In a footnote, the panel observed, “One way to avoid cutting off a grandparent’s opportunity to seek visitation rights by catching him or her unawares would be to amend the adoption statute to require notice of a petition for adoption be given to anyone who would be eligible under the (Grandparent Visitation Act) to seek grandparent visitation rights as of the time the petition is filed.”

“We sympathize with Sutliff’s plight, and we recognize that, especially in family law matters, more is undoubtedly involved than the legally relevant facts disclose. But the legally relevant facts are those upon which we must base our decision, and here, those facts lead inescapably to the conclusion that Sutliff had no legal right to seek grandparent visitation at the time she filed her petition,” Robb wrote. “Regrettably, in situations such as this, the result may be inequitable and may not serve the purpose of the GVA.

“However, it is not our place to judicially expand the statute beyond its explicit terms or to craft exceptions for specific circumstances. … The legislature drew a fine line on this issue between protecting intergenerational relationships and protecting newly formed adoptive family units. Stepping into the role of an adoptive parent and building a successful new family unit takes courage and support. There must be some assurance that the circumstances as they exist at the time of the adoption will not be thrown into disarray months or even years later by a grandparent newly seeking visitation.”

The case is Kirk R. Jocham v. Melba Sutliff, 29A02-1406-DR-424.