Case # 15NF1360
Date: June 24, 2016
MAN SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS IN PRISON FOR ATTEMPTED HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND PANDERING OF FICTITIOUS MINOR GIRL ON FACEBOOK AND PIMPING HIS ADULT GIRLFRIEND
*Defendant complained to undercover officer about Orange County’s tough stance on human trafficking
FULLERTON, Calif. – A man was sentenced today to six years in state prison for the attempted human trafficking and pandering of an undercover officer, whom believed to be a minor girl, on Facebook and the pimping of his adult girlfriend. Brandon Roosevelt Starks, 31, Fresno, pleaded guilty today, June 24, 2016, to one felony count of attempted human trafficking, one felony count of pimping, and one felony count of pandering. The defendant was also ordered to pay restitution.
Circumstances of the Case
Starksis a human trafficker/pimp who exploits women and/or children for financial gain. With the rise in popularity of social media and ease of meeting people on the internet, many pimps and human traffickers utilize a variety of social media to locate potential victims.
Between March 19, 2015, and May 19, 2015, Starks contacted an undercover officer, whom he believed to be a 17-year-old minor girl, on Facebook. The defendant attempted to induce and persuade the fictitious minor to engage and perform commercial sex acts through Facebook messages with the promise that it would benefit each of them financially. Starks attempted to persuade the fictitious minor to meet him in Fresno and instructed her that he would then transport her to areas known for prostitution in Orange County. The defendant also told her that Proposition 35 (Prop 35) has made it difficult to pimp victims in Orange County and stated, “I don’t really like OC since Prop 35 been in affect they ain’t Playin no mo down there,” and “instead of 5 Yr sentence for Pimping it’s a 20 Yr sentence & call human trafficking now basically.”
During the same time, the defendant pimped his girlfriend Jane Doe, and took the money that the victim received from performing commercial sex acts.
The Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force (OCHTTF) investigated this case. On May 19, 2015, members of the OCHTTF located the defendant in a motel room in Van Nuys with Jane Doe and arrested the defendant.
Members of the 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 the Anaheim Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Huntington Beach Police Department, Irvine Police Department, OCDA, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Santa Ana Police Department, and community and non-profit partners.
Deputy District Attorney Juliet Oliver of the HEAT Unit prosecuted this case.
Proposition 35 and HEAT
In November 2012, California’s anti-human trafficking 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.