Southwest valley behavioral health worker relies on experience to help sex-traffic victims

Randy Carter remembers his mother repeatedly telling him to stay away from his best friend’s house in their west Las Vegas neighborhood.

When he finally learned why, it was too late. He was being trafficked for sex. He was only 8.

“I didn’t know what a prostitute was, what a pimp was … all I knew was my best friend lived there and I wanted to play with my best friend,” Carter said. “They handcuffed me to a bed and they had their way with me and they threatened to kill my family, and I believed them because they actually shot at a window and they shot at the front door.”

It went on for five years, Carter said, until he was sent to a juvenile detention center in 1986 for a theft conviction. It wasn’t until then that his parents finally learned the truth. He said his mother initially blamed him for what happened.

The experience made Carter bitter and angry, and he felt empty inside. He grew up in a Christian family and believed he would go to hell if he committed suicide. Nonetheless, he said, he attempted suicide multiple times before he sought solace in drugs and alcohol.

It didn’t take long for him to become addicted.

Now that he has recovered, Carter works as a behavioral health technician at Solutions Recovery, at 2945 S. Rainbow Blvd., helping others find paths to recovery. Admissions counselor Trent Stephenson said it helps to have staffers who can relate to their clients.

“People want to know that when someone is telling them, ‘Hang in there. It’s worth it,’ they know that for sure,” Stephenson said.

Ahead of Human Trafficking Awareness Month in January, Carter decided to come forward with his story in hopes that his message will spread to youths in similar situations.

“I am tired of these predators preying on these young kids, these teenagers and preying on the fact that they are going through things in their household, and that’s what they look for — somebody that’s weak, that’s easily influenced …” Carter said. “I made it through that storm. Now, it’s about helping someone go through theirs,” he said.

The Tropicana Avenue corridor between Decatur Boulevard and Interstate 15 is known for sex-worker activity, said Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Roxanne McDaris. She added that Metro had made some headway in repairing that image over the past year and a half.

“One of the last operations we did out there pulled 19 juveniles off the streets, and we’ve seen the number of juveniles decrease dramatically on Tropicana, which I think is a success for us,” McDaris said.

During his free time, Carter drives on Boulder Highway and through other parts of town where sex workers are known to wander and shares his story with men and women he suspects might be in the sex trade.

Carter said he met a young woman this month who allowed him to talk to her over breakfast at a Denny’s, and after listening to him, the woman asked for a ride to a family member’s home.

Carter’s advice to victims of sex trafficking is to seek help.

“If they don’t open up, no one knows how to help them, and that was my problem,” he said. “It probably wouldn’t have gone as far as it did if I had opened up and said something.”

Carter said publicly sharing his story has been his last step toward recovery.

“When my mom saw me on the news, she called me and asked me, ‘Are you free now?’ Carter said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m free.’”