A northeast Florida woman has pleaded guilty to smuggling a Mexican woman into the U.S. to act as a surrogate mother, instead forcing her into domestic labour through abuse.
Acting U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Morrow on Monday said 47-year-old Esthela Clark of Jacksonville pleaded guilty to forced labour and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.
According to the plea agreement, Clark paid US$3,000 to have the victim smuggled into the U.S. in 2013 and assured her the surrogacy would be medically supervised.
Instead, prosecutors say she forced the unnamed woman into domestic labour through abuse when the woman did not become pregnant.
Details from the criminal complaint say that Clark used a syringe to try to inseminate the woman with sperm from Clark’s boyfriend’s used condoms. Clark is also accused of isolating the woman from her family in Mexico and threatening to harm them if she attempted to escape.
Prosecutors say Clark also starved the victim, feeding her only canned beans, resulting in a 65-pound weight loss.
Investigators credited a local church for bringing the case to their attention. They said a member of Celebration Church suspected the woman was being abused and called police.
One charge of human trafficking against Clark was dropped as a result of the plea deal. The charge arose from allegations that Clark forced the woman to have sex with multiple strangers when she did not become pregnant by Clark’s boyfriend.
But a U.S. attorney spokesperson told the CBS-affiliate in Jacksonville, Fla., that they still “stand by those allegations.”
— With files from Jenny Rodrigues