| For Immediate Release Case # 13WM05911 August 9, 2013 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718Farrah Emami Spokesperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486
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MAN CONVICTED AND SENTENCED FOR ATTEMPTING TO SOLICIT COMMERCIAL SEX FROM WOMAN
WESTMINSTER – A man was convicted and sentenced yesterday for attempting to pay a woman for commercial sex. Wesley Douglas House, 44, Trabuco Canyon, pleaded guilty yesterday, Aug. 8, 2013, to one misdemeanor count of loitering with the intent to commit prostitution. House was sentenced to three years of informal probation, 10 days in jail with the possibility of CalTrans in lieu of jail, and must submit to AIDS testing and education.
At approximately 7:00 p.m. on June 13, 2013, House stopped his car in a known prostitution area on Beach Boulevard and Central Avenue in Stanton. He engaged in a brief conversation with a woman, whom he believed to be a prostitute, through his car window and urged her to enter his vehicle. A nearby Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) deputy observed the woman enter the defendant’s vehicle and pulled over the defendant as they drove away. He was arrested at the scene for loitering with the intent to engage in commercial sex with the woman.
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.
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