| For Immediate Release Case # 13NF3387
July 16, 2014 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami Spokesperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486 |
TWO MEN AND WOMAN SENTENCED FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND PIMPING MINOR GIRL WHO WAS LURED THROUGH FACEBOOK
FULLERTON – Two men and a woman were sentenced today for human trafficking and pimping out a minor girl who was lured through Facebook. Kristian Adway, 19, pleaded guilty today to one felony count each of human trafficking, pimping, and evading while driving recklessly. Adway was sentenced to five years in state prison and mandatory lifetime sex offender registration.
Dejon Pierre Moore, 20, pleaded guilty today to one felony count each of human trafficking, and attempted pandering. Moore was sentenced to 11 years and four months in state prison and mandatory lifetime sex offender registration.
Jennifer Kaye Moeggenberg, 24, pleaded guilty today to one felony count of pandering. Moeggenberg was sentenced to three years in state prison.
Circumstances of the Case
Moore contacted 17-year-old Jane Doe on Facebook and maintained a long distance relationship with the victim. On Sept. 21, 2013, Moore drove to Los Angeles to pick up Jane Doe after she rode a train to meet him. Moore then met up with Adway and drove together with Jane Doe to Orange County. Moore used force and fear to induce Jane Doe to work for him and engage in commercial sex. Moeggenberg set rules for the victim and how to behave around sex purchasers.
Moore, Adway, and Moeggenberg, took sexually suggestive photos of the victim and posted advertisements of Jane Doe on websites known for prostitution. Moore collected the money Jane Doe made from performing illegal sex acts and gave some of the earnings to Adway. Moore hit and threatened the victim when she expressed desire to stop providing illegal sex services.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2013, Adway drove Moore, Moeggenberg, and Jane Doe to Anaheim. Adway refused to stop his vehicle for an Anaheim Police Department (APD) officer who was performing a routine traffic stop. Adway sped approximately 60 miles per hour and turned into a crowded parking lot. Adway left his vehicle and attempted to flee from the officer on foot. Moeggenberg had several outstanding warrants and provided false information about her identity to an officer. The defendants were arrested by APD.
Members of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force (OCHTTF) and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office work proactively to protect women and minors from falling victim to commercial sexual exploitation. This case was investigated by APD and received assistance from OCHTTF.
At the sentencing today, Jane Doe submitted a written impact statement letter which was read by the People to the court. She wrote in part, “My priorities are now in order and I know what I want and need in life. I appreciate all of the people who have walked this path with me and did everything in their power to make sure I was okay.”
Deputy District Attorney Brad Schoenleben of the HEAT Unit prosecuted 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.