Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Man Used Au Pair Website To Lure Woman For Sexual Assault

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. This man will spend the rest of his life in prison after luring an au pair to the United States to rape her. I have the disturbing details of the case of Ariznight Winfrey and how the feds say he committed crimes. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm

Starting point is 00:00:26 Anjanette Levy. I've told you, unfortunately, about a lot of sex crimes here on this show, and they're all terrible, every last one of them. But this case is absolutely mind-boggling because the U.S. attorney says the man who's been sentenced for the crimes targeted women using a website that families use to hire nannies. Ariznight Winfrey is the man who committed these crimes. He lived in East Lansing, Michigan, and now he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Winfrey actually lured a young woman to the United States all the way from Italy.

Starting point is 00:01:00 The U.S. attorney says Winfrey targeted young women using AuPair.com, which connects families with nannies. Winfrey's account had a welcome letter that said, We are seeking a very positive individual who can have a great time with us. We have had AuPairs and done exchanges before and really enjoyed it. The letter continues, Please note, you must be able to pay for your plane ticket to the USA. Once you are here, we will pay for everything as well as give you a weekly slash monthly stipend slash allowance. The problem? There was no we. It was only Winfrey. He didn't have a family. His account was a

Starting point is 00:01:38 complete sham. The investigation started in September 2022. East Lansing police were called to Winfrey's home after a woman's sister called and said that Winfrey was making the sister nervous. Federal agents laid out what happened when police arrived in an affidavit. Officers knocked on the door, which was answered by an unknown Asian male. The officers estimated the male to be in his early 30s and noted he was wearing a white robe. The officers requested that the male contact the woman his early 30s and noted he was wearing a white robe. The officers requested that the male contact the woman and have her exit the residence. The woman exited the residence carrying a suitcase and a backpack. Officers observed cameras surrounding the

Starting point is 00:02:15 residence. Officers also noted that all of the windows were covered with paper. Windows covered with paper sounds really, really, really weird. I can see curtains, paper. That's a completely different story. The woman told police that she traveled to Michigan from Kansas, believing she was going to be watching Winfrey's niece, but there were no children in the house and there were no toys or clothes for kids. But she said she saw seven machine guns. The affidavit added. She said the male identified himself as Stryker and advised he used a social media alias, Hunter Tiberius. The woman told detectives there were cameras covering every angle of the interior of the home, including her bedroom. The woman

Starting point is 00:02:57 advised ELPD detectives there were no pictures inside the residence indicating that the male had a family. The victim advised that Stryker asked her if she was good at giving massages and asked her to rub his shoulders. She did not feel comfortable giving the male a massage. She advised she was 18 years old and Stryker knew she was 18 years old. Stryker told her she should get a fake identification and offered to take her out. Stryker offered her alcohol. The following month, a woman called police to report that a friend of hers in Italy had been sexually assaulted by Winfrey. The details the Italian woman provided are incredibly graphic, and I'm not going to go

Starting point is 00:03:35 into everything that she said, but the affidavit says the victim provided additional details of the sexual assault that Winfrey perpetrated on her. She stated on her second day at 343 Highland, Winfrey forcibly handcuffed her and placed a ball gag in her mouth. Winfrey then started videoing her with his cellular telephone. He instructed her to make statements indicating consent and then videoed her repeating those statements. After the rape, the woman returned to Italy. Federal agents later found a videotape of the sexual assault in Winfrey's home. WhatsApp messages had shown just how excited this woman from Italy was for what she thought was a job as an au pair. She wrote, Hi, I booked ticket. Winfrey responded, You're going to have so much fun, and we love nature

Starting point is 00:04:21 and national parks and outdoors. Winfrey also had sex with a 17-year-old underage girl who was in high school. He'd met her on Instagram and he went by the name Hunter Tiberius. An affidavit said, minor victim one went into Hunter's residence and played with Hunter's dog for a time and then went into Hunter's bedroom. Hunter and MV1 engaged in sexual intercourse. MV1 told Hunter to stop and they ceased having intercourse and cuddled for a time. MV1 described the intercourse as consensual. Winfrey convinced the girl to send photos of herself to him over social media and because she was under 18, that made the images child pornography. Winfrey had sent a message to one

Starting point is 00:05:02 of his friends that said, name redacted says she'll serve us. We need her to bring us other HS girls that aren't fat, LOL. HS meant high school. I want to tell you about a great free app. It's called Upside and it's sponsoring today's Law and Crime YouTube takeover. Upside is a free app that gives you cash back on groceries and gas. And this is real cash back that you can transfer straight into your bank account. And it's really easy to use. Download Upside, claim an offer for whatever you're buying, pay as usual using a debit or credit card

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Starting point is 00:06:03 The feds also believed that Winfrey was trafficking in cocaine. They included a photo of what they believed was someone prepping cocaine for sale in the affidavit. Winfrey pleaded no contest to kidnapping, coercion and enticement, attempted coercion and enticement and production of child pornography. He had attempted to lure another teenage girl for sex using social media. Let's bring in Krista Ramey. She's a civil rights lawyer who represents both children and adults who've survived sexual assault and sexual abuse.

Starting point is 00:06:33 So, Krista, this case to me is absolutely stunning and mind-boggling, the lengths that this guy went to. I mean, he pleaded no contest, so we can say that. He's been convicted. He's going to prison for life. Using an au pair website to lure a woman from Italy and then sexually assaulting her. It's unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, extraordinary links really, right. When you think about it, you know, predators do whatever they do, but you would think that there'd be much easier, easier ways to do it, right? A lot easier ways to do it if you're going to.

Starting point is 00:07:05 This is really disgusting and it shows like such an intent. And I think that it goes back to something that I think maybe you and I have also talked about in the past about kind of how a predator's mind works. And they really put themselves in the position of trust with their victims. And so if you're a family that needs an au pair and you've got young children, you're,

Starting point is 00:07:26 you know, you're bringing someone into your home that is automatically going to trust you on some level. And so I think that that is part of it. You would think that like this company would have screened and then you're safe and going there. Normally to get a young woman to go into a complete stranger's home, you know, going there. Normally, to get a young woman to go into a complete stranger's home, you know, most of us are, you know, not going to just do that without having some kind of, you know, building a trust involved. And so it's very calculated what he did.

Starting point is 00:07:55 Incredibly calculated. I mean, the profile on the au pair website, the WhatsApp messages, I mean, and then we move on to these minor victims as well. They know, you know, the minor victims and then the Facebook messages about wanting to spank the one young woman. I mean, she was 17 years old. I mean, this guy is depraved. I mean, he's going to prison for life. I already mentioned that. I just don't, your reaction to the life sentence, first of all, I mean, I was kind of pleasantly surprised when I when I read that, that he was actually getting a life sentence. We know that federal penalties can often be a lot stiffer and a lot heavier than state charges.

Starting point is 00:08:39 I think that well, I was pleasantly surprised. I agree with you. I was actually like, it's almost like you have a relief that comes over you when you see that someone like that gets that kind of sentence. And I think that with sex crimes, you're seeing a lot of the mandatory minimums even going up in a lot of states and on the federal level. And because this case involved minors and involved the internet, probably distribution of porn over the internet from what I could read from the press release. And so you've got, so CSAM laws that went into, you know, that were in play, which is the sex abuse of materials of minors. And you have basically human trafficking. You've got luring someone over to the US for the purposes of sex and to exploit her.

Starting point is 00:09:26 And so I think because of the types of claims that you have involved, you're not seeing like the 20 to 30 year sentence where there's a possibility of parole. But you're seeing this life sentence. Now, I don't know if it's life without parole. I don't remember that part. But I think that this guy is going away. Yeah, he's going to prison for life. He did not contest the charges. He's never getting out. They had all of this evidence against him. They had videotapes.

Starting point is 00:09:50 They had the stuff on his phone. I mean, they had him dead to rights. Let's go back to the house where this happened. I mean, there's some disturbing details, video cameras all over the house from what was stated in the affidavit filed by the agents in this case. Also, newspaper all over the windows in this house. We're not talking about curtains. He had it covered in newspaper. And yet he's driving around in a Porsche and then a BMW, yet newspaper covering the windows. I mean, this is like a creepy house of horrors. And he lures this poor woman from Italy. She's so excited to come here to be an au pair and to experience the United States. And she describes this horrific, horrific sexual assault that he perpetrates upon

Starting point is 00:10:39 her. And then she goes back to Italy. I mean, he basically sends her back to Italy and she has to call a friend who then contacts law enforcement. I mean, it's just stunning to me that ending because of what he immediately did to her upon that arrival. And, you know, thankfully, he let her go and took her to a bus stop. I can't even imagine. So I guess just shows how brazen he was and how he didn't think he would get caught bringing in a foreign national into his home and doing this to her. Maybe he just thought that she would just forget about it and lick her wounds and go away, I guess. I don't know. Thankfully, she fought and has decided to fight and not only helped him. And, you know, I think when you, upon walking into that house, she was, you know, you think, why didn't she just run? She was probably just paralyzed in fear. And you got to remember what people's kind of trauma response

Starting point is 00:12:01 is. It's fight, flight, fear, fawn. And so when you're confronted with that kind of terror, people react in all sorts of different ways. And unfortunately, she was someone who froze apparently and was just horrifically abused, horrifically abused. So hopefully now she's getting the help she needs and in connection with it all as well. Krista, what really is kind of concerning about this is that this guy was able to go on to this au pair dot com website and create this fake profile and represent himself as a family man when he was anything. But so she is suing the au pair. The one the Italian victim is suing au pair dot com and others. Your thoughts on that? Because anybody could possibly

Starting point is 00:12:46 log on there and create a profile. Yeah. And when you are providing the services that you are providing, which is to send young men and women over to foreign countries to the US to provide, quite frankly, you know, services at a ridiculously low rate. I mean, we could talk about the wage and hour theft that's probably occurring through au pair.com, but they would need to be screening these people in some manner. So how are they doing? Are they just allowing someone to log on like a dating website and just randomly put up a profile or are they actually vetting people? I don't think that they were vetting people at all because, you know, any kind of background check into this guy, you would realize that he's not married. He doesn't have children.

Starting point is 00:13:30 He lives with his mother in a house covered with newspaper. You know, so I think that au pair.com has some answering to do. Let's talk about the minors too. He was using Instagram to try to lure minors for sex. You know, that does happen obviously, but you know, some of the things that were going on with this guy, it's just beyond the pale, not only luring women via a nanny website, but also high school girls using Instagram. Yeah. These young girls are so trusting. I don't, you know, I don't understand their mindset and why they allow themselves to, you know, send photos of themselves to strangers. And this is what is happening. These men, this man in particular with these girls, you know, talked them into sending pictures of themselves in sexual acts to him. It's just, it's stunning. This is a big warning for parents, by the way, about monitoring your children's social media. I know we don't want

Starting point is 00:14:31 to invade our children's privacy, but my God, you know, to gain the trust of someone that way, like with that kind of disconnect between you that you don't know. He must have some level of charisma that allows him to work his way in. He looks very young. I think that that also played a role. So maybe he wasn't letting these girls on to how old he really was. But when your child meets someone online, that's a red flag. It's just a red flag. And we should be concerned about it as parents. Most certainly. Krista Ramey, it's a disgusting, disturbing case. And this guy is where he belongs. Thank you so much for coming on. Yes, I'm glad he's where he is too. Thank you so much for having me. Happy to talk about these cases anytime with you.

Starting point is 00:15:19 And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Man Used Au Pair Website To Lure Woman For Sexual Assault

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