Source: United States Department of Justice News
DETROIT –A Detroit man who photographed his sexual assaults of a young child and forced an adult to engage in prostitution was sentenced to life in prison, United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced today.
Ison was joined in the announcement by Angie M. Salazar, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations, Detroit Field Division, and Michael Patton, Chief of West Bloomfield Township Police Department.
Ryon Travis, 39, was convicted of production of child pornography and sex trafficking after a jury trial in July 2022. Travis was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Bernard A. Friedman.
Police began investigating Travis in connection with identity theft. When detectives searched Travis’s cell phone for evidence of fraud, they found something far more alarming: explicit photographs of child sexual abuse depicting the penetration of a prepubescent child. And when law enforcement returned to Travis’s home a second time to gather additional evidence related to child pornography, they found an adult woman chained at the neck to a pole in the living room. Investigators learned that multiple women lived in Travis’s home, and he considered all of them his “wives.” Travis arranged commercial sex dates for all of the women. When one of the women tried to leave, Travis forced her to continue engaging in prostitution by placing a chain around her neck.
“Child sexual abuse leaves an indelible mark on victims. The documentation of the abuse makes this crime even more egregious. This defendant also forced an adult woman to engage in prostitution by physically restraining her with a chain. The public needs to be protected from Ryon Travis, and this lengthy sentence helps to do just that,” U.S. Attorney Ison said.
“Predators like Travis tear at the very foundation of our communities, not only victimizing children but subjecting multiple women to sex trafficking” said Angie Salazar, HSI Detroit Special Agent in Charge. “It is my hope that this sentence brings some measure of peace to the survivors, knowing that he will remain behind bars.”
This case was investigated by the West Bloomfield Township Police Department, and Homeland Security Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara Woodward and Andrea Hutting.