WASHINGTON, April 1, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Justice
Department announced today that Shanaya Hicks of Bloomfield, Conn., was
sentenced today to 46 months in prison for her involvement in a
prostitution ring that victimized minor girls and coerced young women to
engage in commercial sex acts against their will.
Hicks and nine co-defendants were charged in a 64-count superceding
indictment on August 8, 2006. Hicks pleaded guilty on March 14, 2007, to
the following charges: two counts of sex trafficking of minors, two counts
of sex trafficking of adult women (through force, fraud or coercion), and
conspiracy. Eight other charged individuals, including co-defendant Brian
Forbes, also pleaded guilty in the case. In June 2007, co-defendant Dennis
Paris was convicted at trial for multiple charges including sex trafficking
of minors, sex trafficking of adults (through force, fraud, and coercion),
conspiracy, use of an interstate facility to promote prostitution, and
money laundering. Co-defendant Forbes is scheduled to be sentenced on April
7, 2008, and co-defendant Paris is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14,
2008.
In this matter, co-defendant Forbes found and enticed young females,
including minors, from states adjacent to Connecticut, and used a variety
of threats to force the young women into providing sexual services to the
ring's clients in and around Hartford, Conn. Co-defendant Forbes used a
variety of unlawful means to force the victims to repeatedly provide sexual
services to the ring's clients. Those means including physical threats and
unlawful restraint. Defendant Hicks acted as Forbes's assistant. Hicks'
duties included answering phones, booking prostitution calls, and driving
the victims to their prostitution appointments in the Hartford-area. Hicks
previously admitted knowing that Brian Forbes was using fraud and coercion
to cause the victims to engage in commercial sex acts.
"These sex trafficking victims were vulnerable young women and girls,"
said Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice
Department's Civil Rights Division. "Finding and stopping predators such as
defendants Forbes and Hicks remains a top priority of the Department of
Justice."
"Federal law enforcement is committed to investigating and prosecuting
sex trafficking crimes, particularly when minors are abused and women are
forced to commit sexual acts against their will and under the threat of
violence," stated Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the
District of Connecticut.
Human trafficking prosecutions such as this one are a top priority of
the Department of Justice. In the last seven fiscal years, the Civil Rights
Division and U.S. Attorneys' Offices across the nation have increased by
nearly seven-fold the number of human trafficking cases filed in court as
compared to the previous seven fiscal years. In FY 2007, the Department
obtained a record number of convictions in human trafficking prosecutions.
This case was investigated by a law enforcement task force led by
Detective Deborah Scates of the Hartford Police Department, Sergeant Chris
McKee of the Windsor Police Department, Special Agent Chris Grispino of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Special Agent Douglas Werth of the
Internal Revenue Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S.
Attorney Jim Genco, and Special Litigation Counsel Andrew J. Kline of the
Department of Justice's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
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