Activist bailiff walking to D.C.
For Broward court bailiff Roger DeHart, a journey of 1,065 miles began with a single cause: to raise awareness about human trafficking.
Starting at the steps of the Broward courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale on March 31, DeHart walked to Federal Highway and turned north on a route designed to take him to Washington, D.C.
By the end of his first day he was in Deerfield Beach, preparing to cross into Palm
Beach County. “What have I gotten myself into?” he said at the end of the first day.
By Thursday evening he was in Port St. Lucie. He stopped along the way for conversations with fellow law enforcement officers, firefighters, waiters and waitresses, and hotel managers who questioned him about his agenda.
He calls it the “No More Miles” walk.
DeHart, 47, a father of two, conceived of his trek last year after meeting the mother of a victim at a meeting of the Broward Human Trafficking Coalition. A regular jogger, he said he trained in the months leading up to the walk by quickening his pace. But just days into it, he’s feeling the pain.
“I’ll listen to my body,” he said. “If I need a day off, I’ll take it.”
He needs to average 22 miles a day to reach Washington on May 19 as planned.
“I’m trying to raise awareness, and to raise money,” said DeHart, son of the activist who founded Men of Tomorrow, which provides scholarships to academically deserving students from Broward’s public schools. “Radical ideas get attention. I wanted to draw attention to the cause.”
Through his organization’s website, firststops.org, DeHart said he has raised about $6,000 so far. First S.T.O.P. has its non-profit status pending — the acronym stands for Saving Teens and Others from Predators. The funds are intended for educational and counseling programs for survivors of human trafficking.
Of the 38,304 cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline since 2007 and assessed as “high” probability of actual trafficking, 4,548 came from Florida. The number of confirmed cases in Florida more than doubled from 237 in 2012 to 556 in 2016 before falling to 329 last year.
Victims are typically forced into lives of prostitution or cheap labor.
It’s an issue DeHart said he’s observed in numerous trials over the 15 years he’s been a bailiff.
At a restaurant Thursday in Port St. Lucie, he talked to a waitress about his cause.
“She began to tell me about a couple of friends on the Treasure Coast that were offered ‘modeling’ jobs through different websites,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “Of course these ‘modeling’ jobs guarantee great money and traveling to exclusive places. Thankfully her friends didn’t entertain those offers, but it goes to show how prevalent human trafficking is.”
In Daytona he plans to meet up with news reporters and a small group of trafficking survivors (the group is private and its organizer declined to comment).
Friends and family who live along the route have promised to host DeHart as he passes through Melbourne and Jacksonville. His original plan to spend nights in a recreational vehicle accompanying him along the way proved to be ill-conceived, he admitted.
“Between gas and finding a place to park the RV every night, it would cost more than just getting a room,” he said.
Instead he’s been paying for budget motel and hotel rooms with the funds raised so far.
DeHart is hoping to hold a rally at the U.S. Capitol. He’s invited elected officials, including Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, to join him. The senators’ offices could not confirm Friday whether they planned to attend.
His walk has the support of the Broward Human Trafficking Coalition and he’s been sponsored by Livewell Chiropractic in Davie as well as Runner’s Depot, which provided him with a pair of Hoka One running shoes.
“My ulitmate goal is to set up a safe house for victims,” said DeHart.
But he’s unsure if enough can be raised between now and May 19 to meet that objective. The trip will cost about $5,000 in meals and shelter, and he hopes to clear an additional $10,000 in contributions for the programs he wants to help fund.
But the end of the walk, he said, will not be the end of his cause.
“First, I’ll rest a couple of days,” he said. “Then I want to talk to different survivor groups and get ready to distribute funds to organizations doing the work I want to support.”
As for future fundraising efforts, DeHart said nothing specific is in the works.
“I have time to plan my next steps,” he said.