** UPDATED --- See end of post --- UPDATED **
(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) WASHINGTON -- A man who recruited girls as young as 14 as prostitutes has been convicted of illegal sex trafficking, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Jaron Brice, 27, of Washington, faces up to 40 years in prison after a jury in U.S. District Court in Washington found him guilty Tuesday of nine counts related to the prostitution operation. Brice also will have to register as a sex offender for life when he leaves prison.
Sentencing was set for May 12.
The case grew out of a Justice Department crackdown on child prostitution that has resulted in more than five dozen convictions in the past three years.
Prosecutors said that over 14 months beginning in March 2004, Brice used threats and violence to force young women into prostitution, sending them to Florida, Maryland and New York. He also had intercourse with a 14-year-old he had recruited as a prostitute. UPDATE: The Washington Post has much more on the story: Area Juvenile Sex Rings Targeted Using Anti-Trafficking Laws.
[HT], [SS]
 human trafficking, sexual slavery, prostitution, fleshploitation |
