July 1, 2015

Dallas-Area Woman Sentenced for Conspiracy to Trafficking Minor into the New Orleans-Area

U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that ANDREA BIRDOW, age 24, from Sherman, Texas, was sentenced today after pleading guilty to conspiring with her boyfriend, TAUREAN JACKSON, to traffick a minor from the Dallas area into the New Orleans area for the purposes of that minor engaging in prostitution.

U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan sentenced BIRDOW to time served, followed by one year of supervised release.

According to court documents, BIRDOW met JACKSON, the creator and host of a Dallas-area radio program entitled, “Cheap Hoes Gotta Go,” in 2012, after JACKSON recruited her to join “Star City Vixens,” an entity he created to foster and promote prostitution. JACKSON became BIRDOW’s pimp and arranged for her to engage in sexual acts with others in exchange for money. JACKSON was responsible for advertising and scheduling prostitution calls with BIRDOW. JACKSON kept all, or most, of the proceeds from the prostitution calls. As a means of controlling BIRDOW’S behavior and ensuring her compliance, JACKSON beat and choked BIRDOW on multiple occasions, often in front of others. On several occasions, JACKSON burned BIRDOW with lit cigarettes to discipline her.

In mid-June 2013, JACKSON and BIRDOW met the victim, who was then 16-years-old, in the Dallas area and recruited her to begin working for JACKSON as a prostitute. Over the course of the next several weeks, JACKSON and BIRDOW drove the victim throughout Texas and Louisiana for the purpose ofBIRDOW and the victim engaging in prostitution, which JACKSON advertised and arranged using an online classified advertisement. JACKSON arranged for the victim to watch BIRDOW engage in prostitution acts as a means of educating her on the best way to perform sexual acts. To control the victim’s behavior, JACKSON beat BIRDOW in front of the victim, warning that he would do the same to the victim if she tried to leave him, and separately beat the victim with an extension cord. Ultimately, BIRDOW and the victim were arrested on July 10, 2013, in a Metairie hotel room by undercover law enforcement officers who responded to an online classified advertisement offering a prostitution date.

JACKSON pled guilty earlier this year and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15, 2015.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office for initiating the case, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the FBI Dallas Child Exploitation Task Force, and the Dallas Police Department High Risk Victims Unit for investigating this case. Assistant United States Attorneys Jordan Ginsberg and Brandon Long are in charge of the prosecution.