WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) - New details have emerged in the case of a Williston man charged with human trafficking who was featured in a documentary about the oil patch town.
Keith Graves, who’s in jail on $2 million bond for human trafficking and multiple other counts, hasn’t entered a plea. His attorney Monday requested a preliminary hearing for after Oct. 1 but declined to comment on the case.
Graves, 38, was convicted in California in 1999 of a felony charge for lewd acts with a child under the age of 14, according to sex offender records. He was one of the main subjects of “The Overnighters,” a documentary that follows a Lutheran pastor who opened up his Williston church and parking lot to oil workers with nowhere to stay.
A transcript of a police affidavit describes several days in late July when authorities allege Graves recruited one woman to become a prostitute, raped her multiple times and forced her to take drugs.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe, was being held at the correctional and treatment center in Rugby on unspecified charges when she heard about Graves from women who had worked for him, according to the affidavit. They told her “if she got in contact with Mr. Graves he could help her get her life in order and help her take care of some of her bills,” the affidavit says.
Graves met the woman July 25 in Stanley, began driving her to Williston and at one point pulled over near some grain elevators and forced himself on her before continuing driving, the document states.
The woman spent the next few days in two Williston hotels where she was introduced to other women working for Graves, was raped while unconscious and in the backseat of a pickup, according to the affidavit. Graves at one point put a gun to the woman’s head and told another woman to inject her with methamphetamine, the affidavit says.
“The Overnighters,” which won the special jury award at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, follows Lutheran pastor Jay Reinke, who allowed men arriving in Williston to stay on his church grounds. The film is to be released nationally Oct. 10 by Drafthouse Films.
During an Aug. 1 bond hearing, Graves listed his address as Reinke’s house. In a statement Reinke read to The Associated Press over the phone on Monday, he said Graves stayed in his house perhaps half a dozen times in the past year but had not been there since May.
Wes Haney, who lives next door to Reinke, estimated that between 15 and 20 men have lived with Reinke recently, at times sleeping in a small pickup in the driveway and tents in the backyard. Others sleep elsewhere but come to Reinke’s to shower, he said.
Haney said he had no clue a convicted sex offender was living next door and he criticized law enforcement for not informing the neighborhood.
“Why is the info not being released to the public?” he said.
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