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I was afraid.

I was so skinny--

so unhealthy.

I felt like people think I'm just

nasty or I'm just a prostitute that no one cares about me.

NARRATOR: Leah Rogers was a victim of sex trafficking.

I did try to escape several times

and I never could get away.

And the abuse, the hits, became harder and harder to a point

where I blacked out a couple of times

with the hits and then that's when I just knew--

I said, I can't protect myself.

I can't fight him.

NARRATOR: Leah had been an easy target.

Born out of wedlock, she grew up with her drug-addicted mother.

The only father figure she knew were

the men in her mother's life, who at times, beat and molested

Leah.

So that's what I thought love was.

That's what I thought attention from a man was.

It was normal to me.

NARRATOR: Leah was 13 when child protective services put her

into a group home, where she spent five troubled years.

By the time she aged out at 18, she

had a one-year-old daughter with no money and nowhere to turn.

She took a job as an exotic dancer.

The only thing that I knew is that guys liked me for one

thing, and that was my body.

I was like, hey, guys have touched me my whole life.

What's the big deal?

NARRATOR: For the next six years,

she made her living as a stripper.

One night, she met a man at the club she thought

was her Prince Charming.

Honestly, he was so sweet.

He would shower me with gifts.

He knew how to say all the right things.

He always made me feel wanted.

NARRATOR: But after a few dates, he

became possessive and eventually took her phone and IDs.

When Leah resisted, he exploded.

Started hitting me several times

in my face where both my eyes were

so swollen and black that I couldn't even see out of them.

And pulled out all my hair like skin bald.

He started to burn me with cigarettes

all down my arms and my legs.

He made me feel like if you didn't do that then,

you wouldn't get beat.

If you'd just listen, you wouldn't get hit.

NARRATOR: After months of brainwashing and abuse,

Leah gave up fighting.

He brandished her with a tattoo as his property

and forced her into prostitution, something

he had planned all along.

He would tell me, if you leave me, I'm going to find you

and I'm going to kill you.

And if I can't find you, I'm going to kill your mother.

NARRATOR: To protect her daughter and her mother,

who was now clean and a Christian, Leah stayed.

She sent her daughter to live with her brother.

For the next three years, her captor

dragged her across the Southwest,

while at the same time recruiting other girls.

Then Leah became pregnant with his son and his grip tightened.

But the abuse continued after that

and he was still making me work.

I felt like I was trapped.

There was no way out.

Two weeks after I had my son, he took him to his mom's house.

I wasn't allowed to see my son unless it was with supervision.

I wasn't allowed to take him nowhere

and he would use that against me.

NARRATOR: Then in 2011, one of Leah's johns pulled a gun

and threatened to kill her.

She convinced him to let her live but the trauma left

her more desperate for escape.

Leah cried out to a God she barely knew.

LEAH ROGERS: My God, if you're real, please help me.

Please help me, I'd just cry.

Because I don't know how to escape.

I don't know how to leave.

But I need your help, save me.

Save me.

NARRATOR: Two weeks later, Leah was with her pimp

as he was trying to recruit two girls.

They turned out to be undercover cops and took both of them

into custody.

Afraid of what might happen to her son,

Leah said nothing in her defense.

As a result, she was charged with 21 felonies--

the same as the trafficker who had been holding her hostage.

I was just screaming and crying and I was mad at God.

NARRATOR: But while awaiting trial in jail,

Leah continued talking to God and began reading the Bible

and attending chapel.

I started to wake up early in the morning,

like at 5:00 in the morning before the whole dorm woke up,

and I started to pray and sing out loud.

The feeling that I had when I talked

to him, when I read the word--

like it was something that no one's ever gave me.

The love that I felt from God was a love

that I felt for no human being to this day.

NARRATOR: Leah had been in jail for six months when

she gave her life to Christ.

All the hurt, all the anger, all the pain,

all the scars, all the suffering was His.

I started to trust Him.

And I knew that whatever happened,

He knew what was best for me and He was protecting me

and He was my father and He loved me.

And I believed that with all my heart.

NARRATOR: Still concerned for her son, Leah kept silent

and signed a plea deal for a seven-year sentence.

Then a week later, she received a postcard.

It was from her trafficker's family.

On the back was written, "I have your son."

She called her mother, who went immediately to pick him up.

Once he was safe, Leah showed the postcard to her lawyer

and agreed to testify.

Using the postcard as evidence, the lawyer

appealed her case and the judge dropped all charges.

My lawyer came up to me and he said, are you ready to go home?

And I just started crying.

Only God, after you sign a plea for seven years,

can make the judge turn his heart around

and say, no, we're giving this girl a chance.

That had to be Him.

NARRATOR: After completing a court-ordered rehabilitation

program, Leah was reunited with her children.

Today, she's an educator with the sex-trafficking institute

and runs the Help Her Stand Foundation,

an organization that counsels and advocates

for sex-trafficking victims.

LEAH ROGERS: That means everything

because it means what I went through was not in vain.

It's a purpose behind my story.

Now I'm free.

Now I can talk and I can tell my story

and I'm not scared because I have someone that's

going to protect me that's better than any human, which

is God.

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