Stacy Besch claims there’s a reason why sex trafficking in Iowa has become rampant.
The state’s highest institutions are allegedly turning a blind eye to it.
The Algona beautician-turned-conservative activist told a crowd of around 100 Cherokee residents on Sunday that the state’s law enforcement agencies, judges, county prosecutors, newspapers and colleges are systemically ignoring what she says is the largest illicit commercial trade in the nation.
She claims Iowa has the third largest sex trade per capita of all 50 states.
That’s because, in her view, it’s convenient for the powerful to ignore. She’s trumpeting her message in a rapidly growing tour across the state.
“There are too many county attorneys and law enforcement who are friends with Johns,” said Besch during an hourlong speech following the screening of "Gridshock,” a 2019 documentary that attempts to reveal the extent of sex trafficking in Iowa. A “John” refers to someone who pays for sex services.
Besch claimed judges toss sex crimes “to the wayside” if the state’s judicial caseload becomes overburdened. She claimed counties are allotted a capped number of felony sex prosecutions per year.
“I had no idea that our counties are only allotted so many cases a year,” said Besch of what she believed were systematic dismissals of felony sex crime cases. “What do you think happens to the sex crimes that don’t make the cut? They’re thrown to the wayside.”
She claims the organized sex trade is pervasive on every college campus in the state.
Sex trafficking, she said, “is absolutely happening at every college campus across our state. Every single one.”
The state’s newspapers, she added, are intimidated by losing advertising accounts. Revealing the state’s growing illicit sex trade, she claimed, could be a costly proposition.
“I started thinking, ‘who runs the media? How come these (trafficking cases) aren’t all over the front page of the newspaper?’” Besch asked the crowd. After her presentation, she told the Chronicle Times that organized sex trafficking is easier downplayed than prominently reported.
“It’s very easy for a newspaper to say, ‘I don’t want to lose that big account, so I’m not going to put that in the front page,’” she said.
Cherokee school district funds Besch through partisan group Team Iowa
Besch says organized sex trafficking is thriving in rural areas, though it remains shrouded. Young girls and boys, she said, are being routinely kidnapped and sold into sex or pornography slavery.
Some captors install tracking chips and brand victims with tattoos to establish ownership. Besch said the tactics that keep the sex trade alive are evolving thanks to a glut of money from a growing supply of buyers. She said the buyers are often “the men who wear ties.”
“We’re too Iowa Nice. We turn the cheek. We think we know everybody. We think we know that neighbor that lives down the street or in the next acreage or farm, and so we don't want to get involved,” Besch said during her opening remarks in the Cherokee High School auditorium to the rapt audience. “And then Iowa became that breeding ground.”
Besch warned audience members that sexual predators lurk in even the most unsuspected Iowa towns: Carroll, Renwick, Pella, Humboldt and Okoboji, where she claims the trade runs smoothly and without detection.
She conjured an account from a trafficking survivor who says she was sold into sex slavery from Morningside University in Sioux City at 19. The survivor claimed her pimp sold her “up to 50 times a night” in Okoboji.
“Guess what? There's a lot of wealthy people in Okoboji,” she said of the burgeoning sex and human trafficking trade in the Iowa Great Lakes. “They know exactly who to call to get that girl there and they can afford the $5,000 ticket.”
Besch advocates for the public to be vigilant of the trade. She says it’s evolved in volume and sophistication.
She’s taught dentists to recognize inner lip tattoos as markings of the sex trade.
She tells parents to delete apps on their children’s phones, including Snapchat, Grand Theft Auto and Roblox. They’re a breeding ground for child predators, she claims.
And she advises calling state legislators to stiffen the penalties against those who attempt to purchase sex and those who sell sex. She advocated for a task force of police, judges and county attorneys to investigate and prosecute organized sex crime in Iowa. She claimed the trade is too large and elaborate to be combated by local law enforcement, who are “overworked and understaffed.”
Besch aims to screen the documentary and speak in all 900 communities in Iowa.
Her speaking and advocacy is underwritten through donations to Team Iowa, an organization that describes itself as a “group of Christian patriots.” The volunteers aim to raise awareness for a host of conservative issues, including holistic alternative medicine, Second Amendment trainings and property rights. The organization isn’t registered with the Iowa Secretary of State or the Internal Revenue Service. It doesn’t have its own website.
Team Iowa affiliates itself with Team America, an organization founded by a retired special operations soldier and conservative activist Jeffrey Prather, who has appeared on Fox News, Drudge Report and the Laura Ingraham Show. Team America’s website vows that all members work to “restore independence via our interdependence on one another and God!”
Pamphlets promoting Team Iowa and Team America were distributed outside the auditorium before and after Besch’s presentation. Besch asked guests at the presentation Sunday to contribute to a free-will donation fund to pay for her gas between speaking events. Cherokee School District agreed to pay for Besch’s hotel expenses Sunday night. She delivered a similar presentation to around 600 Cherokee middle and high school students on Monday.
Clay County Sheriff: ‘We would never turn away or not look at sex trafficking”
Besch’s remarks on sex trafficking outline the criminal enterprise at its most extreme and organized form.
At times during her hourlong speech, she alleges a broad conspiracy to sustain the illicit, burgeoning industry. County attorneys and college presidents surveyed by the Chronicle Times expressed alarm with her claims.
Clay County Attorney Travis Johnson told The Chronicle Times he was “alarmed that someone with a platform is spreading disinformation.” Johnson denied Besch’s claim that county prosecutors have annual “limits” for sex crime prosecutions.
“I am truly at a loss as to what (Besch) is referring to,” said Johnson, who intends to attend one of Besch’s presentations to “possibly learn something” or “correct inaccuracies if they come up.”
Clay County Sheriff Chris Raveling echoed Johnson’s concerns.
“We would never turn away or not look for sex trafficking,” Raveling wrote in an email. “For someone to say that any (officer) or County Attorney’s Office would is disturbing to say the least.”
Kossuth County Attorney Todd Holmes said Besch’s claim of a limit on sex crime cases in Kossuth County shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the state judicial system.
Besch claimed in Kossuth County, where she lives, the attorney’s office is “only allowed 10 cases per year.” She didn’t specify the type of cases or who imposes the limits.
Holmes said the limit pertains to trial schedules, not the number of prosecutions a county attorney can pursue.
“Trial (dates) in each individual county are limited by previously set numbers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t ask for additional trial dates,” Holmes explained. “It’s not a situation where we can only try 10 to 12 cases a year.”
Holmes insisted his office takes all sex crimes seriously.
“We would pursue those types of crimes with maximum effort,” he said.
Buena Vista County Attorney Paul Allen disagreed with Besch’s assessment that there are “too many” prosecutors who are “friends with Johns.”
“I certainly don’t know of anyone who is engaged in human trafficking,” Allen wrote in an email to the Chronicle Times. “If someone suspects either human trafficking or sex crimes occurring in this jurisdiction, we want to know.”
Allen added his office has no quotas for sex crime prosecutions.
“The only issues limiting the prosecution of sex crimes is the sufficiency of evidence, and at times, statutes of limitations,” Allen’s email reads.
Besch also alleged that the trade runs on every college campus in the state.
Jesse Ulrich, president of Iowa Central Community College, called that claim a “fairly dangerous generalization” intended to generate “shock and awe.” It’s false, he asserted. He worries that the implication that educational institutions are turning a blind eye to sex crimes “doesn’t do anything to assist our colleges and universities.”
Ulrich said over the last 30 years, ICCC has “not had a single allegation of sex trafficking.” But if a student or staff member ever needed assistance in a sex trafficking situation, Ulrich maintained that the college “wouldn’t take those things lightly.”
He noted ICCC operates surveillance cameras and provides annual staff training, anonymous complaint forms and lists of local law enforcement, safe houses and other resources for victims.
“We take human trafficking and sex trafficking very seriously,” Ulrich said. “Certainly anyone with different information, we’d like to know about it to get it over to local law enforcement.”
Law enforcement administrators surveyed by the Chronicle Times struggled with Besch’s explanation of how sex crimes transpire in rural communities.
Brian Flikeid, the police chief of Aurelia and Marcus, said he appreciated Besch’s concerns of organized sex crime. Flikeid said the sex trade exists. And there are active investigations of sex trafficking in Northwest Iowa.
But Besch’s vision primarily depicts the “worst case scenario,” which he says is rare in rural communities. He said sex crime most often manifests at the “lower levels.”
For example, a young woman sends nude photos to her boyfriend who solicits more photos and when she refuses, he threatens to distribute the images. The blackmail, he explained, leads to crimes like extortion or sexual assault.
Flikeid pointed to an arrest he made in June 2023 of a pimping attempt made through Tinder. There was no evidence of an organized ring to coerce a victim to have sex, he noted. It consisted of a man and woman attempting to sell sex to an Aurelia man. The couple was sentenced last year to probation terms in connection with the scam.
“I don’t think people realize how something that seems like an innocent thing at the time, what they’re doing could actually open it up for a dangerous situation,” said Flikeid who also has a license to screen the documentary “Gridshock” for educational purposes. Flikeid noted he’s presented with Besch in Cherokee once before.
Flikeid tries to focus on what the audience can recognize. He said that the concept of organized sex trafficking in Northwest Iowa is “a hard pill to swallow.”
While he understands that Besch’s presentation of “Gridshock” “shows how bad things can get,” he worries it ignores some of the earlier “precursors” or warning signs of trafficking. And when he speaks about the film, he advocates for local resources, like the Centers for Abuse and Sexual Assault, Family Crisis Centers and training for police and hospital staff to recognize indicators of sexual abuse. Those local resources are often financed by property taxes, which Republican leaders in the Iowa Legislature are eyeing in the upcoming legislative session.
“Just doing that presentation and not bringing up the local resources and how it gets started, we need to get better, people need to be aware of that.”
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