Case # 15WF1373
Date: September 16, 2015
MAN TO FACE TRIAL FOR PIMPING WOMAN AND ACCOMPANYING HER TO ENGAGE IN SEX ACTS WITH UNDERCOVER OFFICER
*The undercover officer was posing as a sex purchaser in this case
WESTMINSTER, Calif. – A man is scheduled to face trial tomorrow for pimping and pandering a woman and accompanying her to engage in sex acts with an undercover officer. Deante Montez Dowell, 27, Denver, Colorado, is charged with one felony count of pandering by procuring, one felony count of pimping, one misdemeanor count of destroying or concealing evidence, one misdemeanor count of driving a motor vehicle without a valid license, one misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended or revoked license and an infraction for driving at a speed of greater than 100 mph. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison and an additional one year in jail. Opening statements are scheduled to begin tomorrow, Sept. 17, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. in Department W-8, West Justice Center, Westminster.
Circumstances of the Case
Dowell is accused of being a pimp who exploits women and for financial gain. Pimps often establish rigid rules that their victims are expected to follow including setting daily quotas that they’re expected to fulfill. Victims are often required to turn over all payment they receive for sex acts from sex purchasers to their pimp. Failure to follow these rules can result in physical and/or emotional abuse.
A sexually explicit advertisement of 24-year-old Jane Doe was posted on a website known for prostitution and soliciting commercial sex services. On June 23, 2015, Dowell is accused of accompanying Jane Doe to meet with an undercover officer, who was posing as a sex purchaser, at a motel in Costa Mesa to engage in commercial sex. The defendant is accused of deriving support by collecting the earnings and proceeds that Jane Doe earns from performing commercial sex.
The defendant is accused of leaving the motel room after arranging the meeting and searching the vehicles in the motel parking lot. He is accused of identifying an undercover police vehicle at the motel and then getting into his own vehicle with Jane Doe and fleeing the scene. Dowell is accused of driving away from the area at speeds of over 100 mph. The defendant is accused of pulling his vehicle over a short time later. When undercover officers approach the defendant’s vehicle, Dowell is accused of taking apart a cell phone with the intent to destroy evidence.
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 the Anaheim Police Department, 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 Bryan Clavecilla 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.