Metairie Man Sentenced To 121 Months Imprisonment after Previously Pleading Guilty To Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking Of 14-Year-Old Female

According to court documents, between at least May 9, 2017, and June 5, 2017, CALOGERO conspired with others to traffic a fourteen-year-old female from Metairie, Louisiana.  Specifically, J.B. met the victim on May 9, 2017 and recruited her to work for him as a prostitute.  She worked for J.B. from about May 9 through about May 23.  J.B. required her to turn over all, or most, of the money she earned from prostitution to him.  J.B. then created advertisements on online classified advertisement services commonly used to advertise sexual services in exchange for money, through which J.B. received telephone calls and text messages inquiring about, scheduling, and arranging prostitution dates with the victim.  J.B. scheduled the time, location, and other logistics of prostitution dates with the victim.  

Between May 16, 2017 and May 22, 2017, J.B. transmitted sexually explicit photographs of the victim to CALOGERO via email and text message for the purpose of offering and encouraging CALOGERO to arrange a prostitution date with the victim.  CALOGERO engaged in prostitution dates with the victim on at least four separate days, paying less than $120 per occasion.  In addition to engaging in prostitution dates with the victim, CALOGERO occasionally drove her to prostitution dates with other individuals.  On numerous occasions, CALOGERO also attempted to facilitate the prostitution of the victim to multiple adult men by, among other things, taking and transmitting sexually explicit pictures of the fourteen year old to them, negotiating prices, arranging the times and locations of prostitution dates, and providing his personal residence as the location of a prostitution date he arranged. CALOGERO successfully brokered prostitution dates with the victim on at least three occasions.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys= Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

U.S. Attorney Strasser praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in investigating this matter, and specifically the FBI New Orleans Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force, which includes members of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Kenner Police Department, and the Louisiana State Police, with the assistance of the City of New Orleans Office of Inspector General.  Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg, Supervisor of the Public Corruption Unit, was in charge of the prosecution.

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