Sex abuse investigation at Indy center for human trafficking survivors

Sex abuse investigation at Indy center for human trafficking survivors

IMPD investigates rape allegations at faith-based center for survivors of human trafficking

Tim Evans

Indianapolis Star

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An Indianapolis faith-based residential program for human trafficking survivors is the target of a sexual abuse investigation.

The allegations came from two women who say they were sexually assaulted while clients at Hope Center Indy between 2017 and 2019, IndyStar has learned. 

"I can confirm there is an open investigation at that location," an IMPD spokeswoman said in an email response to questions from IndyStar. "However, these cases are sensitive in nature. To maintain the integrity of the investigation we can’t release anything further on it."

The nonprofit center's co-founder and executive director, retired pastor Hubert Nolen, denies the allegations, which first surfaced late last year. Nolen added he is frustrated investigators have not contacted him since they served a search warrant at the center in May.

"There's no truth to the accusations whatsoever," Nolen said, adding the allegations were made by two women who he said provided affidavits to police.

"We have reached out to IPD about a dozen times and said 'do you need to come, do you need to interview anyone, do you need to talk to anyone ... We're an open book. You can come freely. We have nothing to hide, nothing to deny.'"

One vague police report

More than nine months have passed since the first woman told authorities she had been sexually assaulted at the center. But the only public indication of the allegations is a vague IMPD  “rape investigation” report obtained by IndyStar. The report dated Jan. 29 does not specifically name Hope Center or any possible suspects.

The report says a woman told police she was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, 2019, at 11850 Brookville Road. That is the address of Hope Center Indy, which operates “residential programs focused on the recovery of women exiting human trafficking, addictions, and other life-dominating issues,” according to the center's website. 

Nolen said he was unaware of the allegations until police showed up at the center on May 12 to serve a search warrant. 

After the search warrant was executed, an email that circulated among some Central Indiana social services workers and advocates warned they “should not refer any patients/clients to Hope Center Indy.” IndyStar obtained a copy of the email in September, but names of the recipients were not included. Nolen said he believes it was sent to the Marion County Jail and some hospitals. The email also says the center "was raided by law enforcement agencies" and is “part of an ongoing investigation for sexual assault and other potential crimes.”  

The center's attorney, Mike Boring, told IndyStar he sent a letter last week to the IMPD detective on the case restating the center's willingness to cooperate with the investigation.

"One thing I asked at the end of the letter, I said, 'please advise us if this investigation is closed. What we've been kind of dealing with a little bit is sort of the rumor mill," Boring said, citing the May email. 

Second client reported abuse

IndyStar has confirmed through multiple sources familiar with the case that another former Hope Center Indy client also has reported she was abused at the center, naming Nolen as the perpetrator, and was interviewed by an IMPD detective. IndyStar does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

Nolen told IndyStar he has not been interviewed by police, and said he is not aware of investigators questioning anyone else associated with the facility.

"We feel like they have nothing — and they know they have nothing," he said of the investigation. "And so that's why they've basically dropped it."

Boring said Nolen asked him to conduct an internal investigation. The attorney said he found no evidence the allegations are true.

Stefanie Jeffers, founder and CEO of Grit Into Grace Inc., an Indianapolis nonprofit that aids sexual exploitation survivors, said she cannot comment specifically about the allegations of abuse at Hope Center. Speaking generally, however, Jeffers said the possibility that vulnerable survivors could be re-abused in a program intended to help them heal is particularly troubling.

Building on 'Jesus dollars'

Located on a 25-acre campus near the Marion-Hancock county line, Hope Center Indy was founded in 2016 by Nolen and his then 26-year-old son, David Nolen. The center was intended, according to its website, to be “a safe place to heal and a clear path to community reintegration as empowered individuals.”  

The project represented a huge leap of faith for Hubert Nolen, who had just retired after three decades leading Brookville Road Community Church. A profile on the website said David Nolen — who died May 31, 2019, of complications following heart surgery — had become “passionate about helping women coming out of human trafficking.”

Hubert Nolen told The Christian Broadcast Network last year that he was looking for a new ministry “that would go to the streets and highways and byways and bring in the less fortunate, the least of these, the broken, the bruised, the battered."

"I wanted to be the feet and hands of Jesus, going out there where hurting, broken people were," Nolen told CBN.

What happened next, according to the CBN profile, Nolen called a miracle.

Housed in former asylum

A unique property in Warren Township, which had been a refuge for the poor and disenfranchised for more than a century, came on the real estate market. It was the former site of the Marion County Home, which opened in 1899 as the Asylum for the Incurably Insane. In 1938, the name was changed to the Marion County Poor Home or Marion County Infirmary, and it served as a convalescent home for the next six decades. In 1996 the facility, then called Marion County Healthcare Center, closed.

The site contained several multistory brick buildings, with more than 200,000 square feet of residential and office space. It was purchased in 1998 by the Illinois-based Institute in Basic Life Principles, another faith-based nonprofit. The institute used the facility first as an orphanage and then for a Bible college that moved out in 2016.

Driven by their faith and desire to help trafficking victims, the Nolens leased the site and set about establishing Hope Center Indy. Eschewing federal or state support, Nolen told CBN they instead counted on “Jesus dollars.” Cash donations from churches, individuals and businesses began pouring in, and supporters volunteered time to help renovate the aging facilities.

Three retail businesses also were set up on the campus to help supplement the center’s operation: Freedom Barn, an event space available for rental; Redefined Hope Boutique & Coffee Shop; and Blooming Hope Greenhouse.

Nolen told the Greenfield Reporter in 2017 that he estimated it would take $35,000 a month to operate the center, and possibly more as professional staff was added. The website now lists more than 25 staff members in addition to Nolen. But because Hope Center Indy is incorporated as a religious nonprofit, it does not have to file a public accounting or divulge the sources or amounts of its income or expenditures.

Hope Center Indy accepted its first clients into the program for survivors of human trafficking in 2017.  

Nolen defends the center

Nolen told IndyStar he was warned about the possibility of clients making false allegations, but didn't believe it would happen. 

"We were just told early on by different people as we were trying to work on this, 'just be ready because it will be part of the territory. You will be accused. It's not if, it's when, that these ladies will finally accuse you. They'll get mad about this. They'll say this or that," he said. "I didn't really, honestly, think that would probably be true because I thought we're gonna be doing some good things and we'll make sure that we've got our steps, and we'll be precautionary in some of these areas. Hey, it did. Took three and a half years, but it finally happened."

Nolen said he and others at Hope Center Indy cooperated with investigators when they showed up at the center on May 12 with a search warrant.

"They looked for some real generic stuff," he said. "But they didn't find what they were looking for — that we know. And I think that's part of why they didn't come back."

Boring, the center's attorney, said investigators were looking for security camera footage. While the center does have cameras, he said, they record on a loop that overrides older video so "there wouldn't have been any video surveillance of that period of time."

Nolen said about 50 women have enrolled in the Sisters of Survival program, which can run for up to 15 months and provides free room and board, since 2017. Many don't stay the full time, he said, for a variety of reasons. So far, he added, the allegations and rumors have not really affected operations at the center, which he said operates about 30 different faith-based programs. 

"Because of COVID we weren't taking people in anyway," he said. "And so we were just kind of trying to be safe with the residents that we had in our program." 

Nolen said he "is not looking to shut the SOS program down. But I'm just saying if we did, the Hope Center is so much bigger and greater than just SOS." 

In 2019, 157 cases of human trafficking in Indiana were reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Most cases are related to either sex or labor trafficking. More than 75% of the reports last year involved females trafficked for sex. Since 2007,  the hotline has received reports on more than 2,500 Indiana cases.

To report human trafficking or learn more about services available to survivors, call 888-373-7888 (TTY: 711) or text 233733. 

Contact Tim Evans at 317-444-6204 or tim.evans@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.