Date: January 13, 2015
Case # 14NF4797
MAN SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS AND FOUR MONTHS IN PRISON FOR TRAFFICKING AND PIMPING 19-YEAR-OLD WOMAN
*Female co-defendant sentenced to two years in prison for attempted pimping
SANA ANA – A man was sentenced today to six years and four months in state prison for trafficking and pimping a 19-year-old woman for financial gain, and the possession of an illegal firearm. Jeremiah Clifton Johnson, 35, Chula Vista, pleaded guilty to one felony count each of human trafficking, possession of a firearm by a felon, and two felony counts of pimping. Co-defendant Andrea Evelyn Wilkerson, 27, San Diego, pleaded guilty today to one felony count each of attempted pimping and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in public and was sentenced to two years in state prison.
Circumstances of the Case
On or about Oct. 26, 2014, Wilkerson befriended 19-year-old Jane Doe #1, and introduced her to Johnson, who approached and induced the victim to prostitute herself with the promise that she would receive money and a better life in exchange for commercial sex acts. Johnson then began trafficking Jane Doe #1 as a prostitute and collected the proceeds that Jane Doe #1 had received from performing commercial sex acts.
Johnson withheld all of the proceeds that Jane Doe #1 earned from performing commercial sex acts, and when she attempted to leave Johnson, he threatened her and would not permit her to leave. On or about Nov. 4, 2014, Anaheim Police Department began investigating this case and made contact with the defendants, each were in possession of illegally unregistered and loaded firearms in public.
Deputy District Attorney Brad Schoenleben of the HEAT Unit prosecuted this case.
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.
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.