Las Vegas Man Sentenced to Prison for Interstate Travel to Promote Prostitution

ANCHORAGE—U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that an Anchorage man was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage for one count of interstate travel to promote prostitution. Brandon Michael Gadson traveled to Anchorage in July 2010, with three women, the youngest of whom was 19 years old, and another man for the purpose of trafficking the women on the Internet. After arriving, Gadson paid for the hotel rooms for two of the women, and his credit card was used to post explicit advertisements on the Internet that the women were available for commercial sex acts. The vice squad of the Anchorage Police Department conducted a “sting” operation and detectives with that unit arrested the three women in less than an hour from the start of the operation. When arrested, Gadson had approximately $10,000 in his pocket, but the three women had only insignificant amounts of cash in their possession.

Gadson, 32, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was sentenced January 18, 2013, by United States District Court Judge Sharon M. Gleason, to 18 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. During his period of supervised release, Gadson is restricted from use of the Internet without his probation officer’s permission. The sentence imposed was in accordance with the United States Sentencing Guidelines for this crime.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel R. Cooper, Jr., Gadson appeared in at least three videos published on YouTube, all of which lyricized the degradation of women through sex trafficking and promoted the exploitation of women through physical force. In his sentencing remarks, Cooper noted the Alaska State Legislature’s recent recognition that prostitution is, in reality, sex trafficking.

In imposing sentence, Judge Gleason termed Gadson’s conduct demeaning to women and called his crime reprehensible. Judge Gleason found that Gadson was a long-time trafficker, essentially living off women, and so proud of his conduct that he had the word “Pimp” tattooed on the side of his neck. Judge Gleason noted that the tattoos and videos in which Gadson appears are despicable ways to project his sense of self to his family and children. Judge Gleason also said that Gadson’s conduct towards the women he had trafficked, and the videos in which he appeared, were despicable, as was his living off them. Moreover, Judge Gleason found that the assaultive behavior described in the police reports with respect to Jane Doe 1 was egregious.

U.S. Attorney Loeffler stated, “The United States Attorney’s Office, in conjunction with the Anchorage Vice Squad and the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Innocence Lost Task Force, has prioritized the investigation and prosecution of sex trafficking, with particular emphasis on trafficking and exploitation of children and Native Alaskans. We will work with our state, local, and federal partners to continuously and systematically attack this most exploitive of crimes.”

Ms. Loeffler commends the Vice Squad of the Anchorage Police Department for the investigation of this case, with the support of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Innocence Lost Task Force.