UTAH TRUCKER ACCUSED OF KEEPING MORE SEX SLAVES (AbKid, Trafficking Adults, Child Porn, Worst of Worst)

Newsday
11/13/14

Timothy Jay Vafeades, a 54 year old Utah truck driver, is accused of keeping twowomen as sex slaves in his semitrailer as he traveled the country had four more victims, federalprosecutors said in court documents.  Some of the new accusations against him date back 20years.
In two of the new incidents detailed in the documents filed Monday, prosecutors say Vafeadeslured the women to his truck, then forcibly altered their appearances and ground down their teethwhile holding them prisoner for months.
Vafeades met one of the women when he was a hospice patient and married her. He beganassaulting her after she agreed to go to Utah with him and continued until she escaped about sixmonths later, the documents state.
Vafeades is accused of meeting another woman while she worked at a retail store and invitingher to join him in his truck for more than a week in 2005, then keeping her on board for aboutthree months before she got away.
In the other two new cases, Vafeades assaulted women he met at a college and online,authorities said.
No charges have been filed involving the newly disclosed incidents because the statute oflimitations has expired, but prosecutors want to introduce the details as evidence in the casefiled in March.
In that case, prosecutors said the trucker kidnapped and repeatedly sexually assaulted twowomen who were 18 and 19.
Vafeades has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of kidnapping, transporting for illegalsexual activity and possession of child pornography. His attorney Vanessa Ramos declined to commentThursday.
Prosecutors say the circumstances were similar to the recently disclosed incidents and showpreparation, planning and intent.
Ramos has filed a motion to suppress evidence gathered by police during a search ofVafeades's truck after he was arrested in Minnesota.
He was taken into custody after police noticed the 19-year-old woman with bruises on herface at a weigh station. Ramos argued in court documents that the stop and the search were illegal.
A hearing scheduled for Dec. 17 on her motion.
(Salt Lake City, Utah)