ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PRESS RELEASE
Case # 16NF1713
Date: June 13, 2016
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A felon was arraigned today for trafficking a woman from the state of Washington and pimping her by using a firearm to force her to solicit commercial sex. Timogen Anthony Simpson, 27, Kent, Washington, is charged with one felony count each of human trafficking, pimping, pandering, criminal threats, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, possession of a firearm by felon, convicted felon having a concealed firearm in a vehicle, one misdemeanor count of false imprisonment, one misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended or revoked license, and sentencing enhancements for being armed with a firearm while committing criminal threats, and a prior strike conviction for second degree robbery in 2009 and a prior prison conviction for second degree identity theft in 2011, both in King County in the state of Washington. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of over 40 years in state prison. He is being held on $1 million bail and must prove the money is from a legal and legitimate source before posting bond. Simpson was arraigned today and is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing June 21, 2016, at 8:30 a.m. in Department N-3, North Justice Center, Fullerton.
Circumstances of the Case
Simpson is accused of being a pimp/modern-day slave owner who exploits women for financial gain. Pimps often establish rigid rules that their victims are expected to follow including setting daily quotas that the victims are 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 deprivation of food, sleep, and/or physical and/or emotional abuse.
Prior to this case, Simpson is accused of meeting Jane Doe in Washington and tricking her to travel with him to California. Once arriving to California, the defendant is accused of forcing the victim to solicit commercial sex on the street in areas known for prostitution and human trafficking in Orange County. He is accused of threatening the victim by telling her she would not be able to eat or sleep until she made enough money for the defendant. On one occasion, Simpson is accused of choking the victim when she mentioned contacting the police. On another occasion while driving, the defendant is accused of pulling out a firearm and aiming it at Jane Doe and threatening to shoot the victim and her family if she left him.
On June 9, 2016, Jane Doe was able to escape from the defendant and contacted law enforcement. Members of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force (OCHTTF) were able to locate Simpson and arrested him.
Members of 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 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 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.
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