Case # 13NF2507
February 2, 2015
PIMP SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN PRISON FOR PIMPING 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL AND TRAFFICKING 22-YEAR-OLD WOMAN
*Defendant was charged in this case prior to the passage of Proposition 35
FULLERTON – A pimp accepted a court offer and was sentenced today to four years in state prison and mandatory lifetime sex offender registration today for pimping a 16-year-old girl and a trafficking 22-year-old woman. Omaka Cash Johnson, 25, Oakland, pleaded guilty to one felony count each of human trafficking, pimping, pandering, pimping a minor, pandering with a minor over 16 for the purpose of prostitution, and one misdemeanor count of dissuading a witness from testifying.
Circumstances of the Case
In January 2012, Johnson met 16-year-old Jane Doe #1 at a concert in Sacramento and had a sexual relationship with the victim. Approximately two days later, Johnson picked up Jane Doe #1 at her home and exploited her as a prostitute on the streets in Sacramento for two weeks. The defendant also collected the victim’s payments she earned from engaging in commercial sex.
The defendant had Jane Doe #1 work as a prostitute in Oakland, Chatsworth, and Lake Forest. The defendant forced 22-year-old Jane Doe #2 work as a prostitute throughout various cities in Northern California and the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) learned of Jane Doe #1’s disappearance and possible involvement in human trafficking through the Innocence Lost Project. The FBI and Anaheim Police Department (APD) organized a covert operation at a hotel in Lake Forest after contacting Jane Doe #1 through an online advertisement on a website known for prostitution.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office (OCDA) filed charges against Johnson on July 26, 2013. APD, FBI, and the Hayward Police Department arrested Johnson in Hayward on July 28, 2013.
Johnson was charged with this case before Proposition 35 (Prop 35) was enacted in the state of California. Had Johnson been tried under the strictures of Prop 35, he would have faced a maximum sentence of 24 years in state prison due to the expanded definition of trafficking a minor as detailed in Prop 35.
Members of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force (OCHTTF) and the OCDA work proactively to protect women and minors from falling victim to commercial sexual exploitation. This case was investigated by OCHTTF, a partnership between the APD, California Highway Patrol, FBI, Huntington Beach Police Department, OCDA, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and community and non-profit partners.
Deputy District Attorney Bradley Schoenleben 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.