Date: August 20, 2015
Case # 15NF2278
MAN AND WOMAN CHARGED WITH HUMAN TRAFFICKING, KIDNAPPING, ROBBING, AND ASSAULTING WOMAN
*Male defendant in this case is also charged with pimping and pandering separate victim
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man and woman were charged today with human trafficking, kidnapping, robbing, and assaulting a woman. Jarrod Neil Cross, 28, Sacramento, and Saquila Collete Osborne, 31, Rancho Cordova, are both charged with one felony count of human trafficking, one felony count of kidnapping, one felony count of first degree robbery, and one felony count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. Cross also faces one felony count of pimping and one felony count of pandering with sentencing enhancement allegations for prior prison convictions for inflicting corporal injury in 2006 and 2010, refusing to comply with a peace officer in 2013, and not remaining free for a period of five years. If convicted, Osborne faces a maximum sentence of 23 years and eight months in state prison and Cross faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in state prison. Osborne and Cross were arraigned today and are scheduled for pre-trial on Aug. 28, 2015, at 8:30 a.m. in Department N-12, North Justice Center, Fullerton.
Circumstances of the Case
Cross and Osborne are accused of being human traffickers who exploit women for financial gain. Cross is accused of being a pimp and requiring his victims to turn over all payment to him that they received for sex acts from sex purchasers. Failure to follow these rules can result in physical and/or emotional abuse.
Between Sept. 2, 2014, and Aug. 15, 2015, Cross is accused of pandering to Jane Doe 2 by persuading and encouraging her to engage in commercial sex acts for his benefit. Cross is accused of pimping Jane Doe 2 by deriving support from the money that she received from sex purchasers.
Between Aug. 15, 2015, and Aug. 18, 2015, Cross and Osborne are accused of trafficking Jane Doe 1 from Las Vegas, Nevada, to places known for prostitution and human trafficking in Stanton. At that time, the defendants are accused of kidnapping Jane Doe 1 by forcing her to stay in a room at a Motel 6 in Stanton for several days. The defendants are accused of forcing Jane Doe 1 to remove her clothes and taking her belongings including her money and her cell phone. Cross and Osborne are accused of assaulting Jane Doe 1 in the motel room.
Jane Doe 1 was able to escape the motel room and contacted the Anaheim Police Department (APD), who subsequently arrested both of the defendants.
Members of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force (OCHTTF) and the Orange County District Attorney’s (OCDA) Office work proactively to protect women and minors from falling victim to commercial sexual exploitation. This case was investigated by OCHTTF, a partnership between APD, California Highway Patrol, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Huntington Beach Police Department, OCDA, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and community and non-profit partners.
Deputy District Attorney Brad Schoenleben of the HEAT Unit is prosecuting this case.
Proposition 35 and HEAT
In November 2012, California’s anti-human trafficking Proposition 35 (Prop 35) was enacted in California with 81 percent of the vote, and over 82 percent of the vote in Orange County, to increase the penalty for human trafficking, particularly in cases involving the trafficking of a minor by force.
A component of the OCHTTF is the OCDA’s Human Exploitation And Trafficking (HEAT) Unit, which targets perpetrators who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers. The HEAT Unit uses a tactical plan called PERP: Prosecution, to bring justice for victims of human trafficking and hold perpetrators responsible using Prop 35; Education, to provide law enforcement training to properly handle human trafficking and pandering cases; Resources from public-private partnerships to raise public awareness about human trafficking and provide assistance to the victims; and Publicity, to inform the public and send a message to human traffickers that this crime cannot be perpetrated without suffering severe consequences.
Under the law, human trafficking is described as depriving or violating the personal liberty of another person with the intent to effect a violation of pimping or pandering. Pimping is described as knowingly deriving financial support in whole or in part from the proceeds of prostitution. Pandering is the act of persuading or procuring an individual to become a prostitute, or procuring and/or arranging for a person work in a house of prostitution.
Penal Code Section 236.1 defines:
(1) “Coercion” includes any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process; debt bondage; or providing and facilitating the possession of any controlled substance to a person with the intent to impair the person’s judgment.
(2) “Commercial sex act” means sexual conduct on account of which anything of value is given or received by any person.
(3) “Deprivation or violation of the personal liberty of another” includes substantial and sustained restriction of another’s liberty accomplished through force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, under circumstances where the person receiving or apprehending the threat reasonably believes that it is likely that the person making the threat would carry it out.
(4) “Duress” includes a direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship, or retribution sufficient to cause a reasonable person to acquiesce in or perform an act which he or she would otherwise not have submitted to or performed; a direct or implied threat to destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or possess any actual or purported passport or immigration document of the victim; or knowingly destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating, or possessing any actual or purported passport or immigration document of the victim.
(5) “Forced labor or services” means labor or services that are performed or provided by a person and are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, duress, or coercion, or equivalent conduct that would reasonably overbear the will of the person.
(6) “Great bodily injury” means a significant or substantial physical injury.
(7) “Minor” means a person less than 18 years of age.
(8) “Serious harm” includes any harm, whether physical or nonphysical, including psychological, financial, or reputational harm, that is sufficiently serious, under all the surrounding circumstances, to compel a reasonable person of the same background and in the same circumstances to perform or to continue performing labor, services, or commercial sexual acts in order to avoid incurring that harm.
(i) The total circumstances, including the age of the victim, the relationship between the victim and the trafficker or agents of the trafficker, and any handicap or disability of the victim, shall be factors to consider in determining the presence of “deprivation or violation of the personal liberty of another,” “duress,” and “coercion” as described in this section.