Trafficking incident leads to arrest of 29-year-old Ferndale resident

SOUTHFIELD — At 1:30 a.m. March 2, Southfield Police Department officers were dispatched to a hotel located on the Northwestern Highway service drive after a clerk at the front desk reported that a woman approached the front desk and said she was fearful of her boyfriend.

At a press conference held March 6 at the Southfield Police Department, Elvin Barren, the chief of police, shared that a 49-year-old woman from Flint told police that she had been in a dating relationship for four months with the suspect, 29-year-old Rodney Holland of Ferndale, who she only knew as “Mellow.”

According to police, the victim was making plans to return to Flint to stay with her sister when a domestic dispute over an undisclosed matter broke out between the suspect and the victim.

While sitting in her vehicle, which was parked at another location on Northwestern Highway, the suspect approached her and demanded that she exit the vehicle. She then asked if he was going to harm her, to which he allegedly replied, “If I wanted you dead, you would be dead.”

The victim exited the vehicle to distance herself from the suspect and began to walk toward her hotel room to collect her belongings.

According to police, when she returned to the vehicle with her cell phone and instructed the suspect to get out of her car, he refused to exit the victim’s vehicle and snatched her cell phone from her hand. Fearing that the suspect would assault her, the victim ran to a nearby vehicle that was in the parking lot and a private citizen intervened to give the victim a ride to the hotel, where she had another hotel room.

At the press conference, Barren thanked the private citizen and the front desk clerk for getting involved and helping.

“Oftentimes, people don’t get involved, but in these instances, we’re very fortunate to have community members who stepped up to get involved and ultimately helped us rescue another person from human trafficking,” Barren stated. “Our initial report was for a domestic dispute. However, through exceptional detective work, a human trafficking component was uncovered.”

Barren added that one of the first red flags was that she had been in a relationship with him for four months and did not know his real name. Upon reviewing body camera footage, a Southfield Police Department detective determined that there were signs of human trafficking.

“What she discovered through watching the body camera video (was) the victim (was) certainly very emotional, very afraid,” Barren said. “She made declarations that she was scared and had nowhere else to go. She also made statements that she was tired, scared and wanted to get out. See, these are signs.”

Upon further investigation, police found that the victim had commercial sex advertisements posted on social media. Police added that evidence suggests that there are other victims potentially out of Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

Barren said that detectives are currently working to identify potential victims.

Barren referred to Holland as a “career criminal.”

“Our suspect does have a lengthy criminal history, from receiving and concealing stolen property, fleeing and looting third-degree assault, resisting and obstructing police officers, reckless driving, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, strangulation, (and) assault with dangerous weapons,” he said.

Holland, who was on probation for domestic violence strangulation in Wayne County, was arrested without incident March 4 when he was going to meet with his probation officer at a probation office.

Holland was charged with one count of prostitution/ transporting person, one count of  prostitution/ accepting earnings, one count of human trafficking enterprise causing injury, and one count of human trafficking for forced labor causing injury.

He was given a $750,000 cash bond.

Barren reported that the victim is safe and with family.

No attorney was listed for Holland at press time. A probable cause conference was scheduled for March 17.