A federal grand jury in the District of New Jersey returned an indictment on April 25 that was unsealed Wednesday, charging Treva Edwards, 60, with sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion and forced labour.
The indictment also charged Treva Edwards and Christine Edwards, 63, with conspiracy to commit forced labour.
According to the indictment, Treva and Christine Edwards were the founders and pastors of a church they named “Jesus is Lord by the Holy Ghost,” which they operated out of a multi-unit apartment building in Orange, New Jersey, and where they conspired with each other and others to obtain the compelled labor of church members.
“Treva and Christine Edwards turned a source of hope into a tool of fear by allegedly exploiting religious faith to manipulate victims and expose them to sexual violence and forced labor conditions,” said Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark Division.
As charged in the indictment, between 2011 and 2020, the defendants identified and recruited victims who were facing struggles in their personal lives, including financial and familial struggles, to join the church and live and worship at the church building. Treva Edwards told the victims that he was a prophet who could communicate directly with God and that disobeying him would result in spiritual retribution from God, as well as physical, emotional, and financial harm.
The defendants secured labor contracts to provide manual labor in and around Orange, New Jersey, and the defendants dispatched the victims to perform the contracted labor. The defendants did not pay wages to the victims for their work and kept the money earned from their labor.
The defendants convinced the victims that they would lose favor with God if they did not perform labor. Treva Edwards spread fear among the victims through verbal and emotional abuse and threats of reputational harm, homelessness, hunger, spiritual retribution, punishments, and more hard labor to gain their obedience and compel them to perform unpaid labor.
The defendants instituted and enforced strict rules about when and whether the victims could eat or sleep, when and for how long they were to pray and work, and whether they could speak to non-members or leave the church building.
The defendants isolated the victims, monitored their communications and whereabouts, and by convincing them that non-members were evil or possessed by the devil. The defendants deprived the victims of sleep and typically fed them only once a day after they completed their work.
Also, according to the allegations in the indictment, Treva Edwards controlled and subjected one victim to repeated physical and sexual assaults, impregnated her, and instructed her to get an abortion.
The defendants made their initial court appearances last week before a U.S. Magistrate Judge André M. Espinosa.
The charge of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion against Treva Edwards carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The forced labor charge against Treva Edwards carries a maximum penalty of 20 years or life imprisonment if the violation included aggravated sexual abuse. The conspiracy to commit forced labor charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
