| For Immediate Release Case # 13WM06280 August 9, 2013 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
|
MAN CONVICTED AND SENTENCED FOR ATTEMPTING TO ENGAGE IN COMMERCIAL SEX WITH WOMAN
WESTMINSTER – A man was convicted and sentenced yesterday for attempting to engage in commercial sex with a woman. Brett Foster Stelcik, 46, Fullerton, pleaded guilty yesterday, Aug. 8, 2013, to one misdemeanor count of loitering with the intent to commit prostitution. Stelcik was sentenced to three years of informal probation, 15 days in jail with the possibility of CalTrans in lieu of jail, and must submit to AIDS testing and education.
At approximately 3:30 p.m. on May 25, 2013, Stelcik was driving his truck on Beach Boulevard and Katella in Stanton, an area known to law enforcement as a high-prostitution area and is known to frequently be used by individuals who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers.
Stelcik drove up to a woman, whom he believed to be a prostitute, and engaged her in a brief conversation through the passenger side window before she entered the truck. Stelcik then drove to a nearby gas station. An Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) deputy who had observed the prior interaction, followed the defendant, and arrested Stelcik for loitering with the intent to engage in commercial sex.
This case was prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney’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. Commercial sex trafficking is the second most lucrative criminal enterprise behind narcotics trafficking. Often the perpetrators are gang members and/or career criminals.
The HEAT Unit also targets defendants who create a demand for prostitution by soliciting and purchasing sex, which increases the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children. The HEAT Unit uses a tactical plan called PERP: Prosecution of human trafficking perpetrators and sex purchasers; Education for law enforcement to properly handle human trafficking and pandering cases; Resources to raise public awareness and provide assistance to the victims; and Publicity to inform the community about the problem and notify human traffickers and sex purchasers that this crime cannot be perpetrated without suffering severe consequences.
The OCDA announced in April 2013 that he will publicize the names of defendants convicted of sexually exploiting women or children by soliciting sex acts as part of the campaign to reduce the demand for human exploitation and trafficking.
This case was investigated by OCSD and Deputy District Attorney Michael Bardeen of the HEAT Unit prosecuted this case.