Parolee charged with human trafficking and pimping a teenager in Santa Ana

Orange County District Attorney Press Release

For Immediate Release, Case # 14CF1730: May 27, 2014

PAROLEE ARRAIGNED ON CHARGES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING MINOR AND PIMPING AND PANDERING HER AND ANOTHER FEMALE TEENAGER

SANTA ANA – A parolee was arraigned today on charges of trafficking a minor, and pimping and pandering her and another teenager. Dominique Legrand Lewis, 21, San Diego, was charged today with five felony counts including human trafficking, pimping a minor, pandering with a minor over 16 years old by procuring, pimping, and pandering, with a sentencing enhancement for a prior prison strike conviction for residential burglary in 2012. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 26 years and four months in state prison. He is being held on $100,000 bail and has a parole hold from the previous conviction. Lewis was arraigned today and is scheduled for pre-trial on June 4, 2014, at 8:30 a.m. in Department C-55, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.

Circumstances of the Case

Lewis is accused of being a pimp who exploits women and/or children for financial gain. The defendant is accused of trafficking 17-year-old Jane Doe #1 by unlawfully depriving her personal liberty. He is accused of pimping Jane Doe #1 and 18-year-old Jane Doe #2 by deriving support from the victims through the earnings and proceeds of prostitution and pandering the victims by unlawfully procuring them for the purpose of prostitution.

Between May 7, 2014, and May 21, 2014, Lewis is accused of driving both Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2 from San Diego to an area of Santa Ana known for prostitution with the intent of having the victims engage in commercial sex.

On May 21, 2014, after contacting a Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) officer posing as a sex purchaser, Jane Doe #1 was taken off the streets to a shelter where she could get help.

On May 22, 2014, Lewis is accused of driving to the shelter with Jane Doe #2. He is accused of attempting to remove Jane Doe #1 from the shelter. The shelter immediately contacted SAPD, who arrived at the scene and arrested Lewis.

The investigation is ongoing. Deputy District Attorney Brad Schoenleben 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.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Human Exploitation And Trafficking (HEAT) Unit 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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Tony Rackauckas, District Attorney
401 Civic Center Drive West
Santa Ana, CA 92701

Contacts:

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

Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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