Woman Pleads Guilty To Monroe County-Based Sex Trafficking Conspiracy

SCRANTON—The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a South Carolina woman who resided in the Stroudsburg area at the time of the offense, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion in Scranton, to participating in a sex trafficking conspiracy in which young women were threatened, forced and coerced into engaging in prostitution in northeastern Pennsylvania.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Selena Bayer-Davis, age 21, admitted to conspiring with others to commit sex trafficking crimes between 2012 and 2014.

Bayer-Davis was indicted along with six other people by a federal grand jury in Scranton in September 2015, as a result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police, Maine State Police, the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, and local police in Monroe County.

The indictment alleges that Bayer-Davis and her co-defendants joined and participated in a street gang known as the Black P-Stones that male gang members were “beaten-in” to the gang and female members were “sexed-in” to the gang.

The indictment further alleges that some females were “sexed-in” to the gang by being forced to engage in sex with male gang members; recruited and coerced to engage in prostitution; advertised as adult escorts on a website; provided with heroin and other drugs; and placed in various are hotels/motels to work as prostitutes. Bayer-Davis admitted that she and others used threats, force, and intimidation to coerce females to engage in prostitution.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa is prosecuting the case.

Bayer-Davis faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15-years in prison and a possible life sentence for her participation in the sex trafficking of others.

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."

A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the Judge after consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

The maximum penalty under federal law is life imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the Judge is also required to consider and weigh a number of factors, including the nature, circumstances and seriousness of the offense; the history and characteristics of the defendant; and the need to punish the defendant, protect the public and provide for the defendant's educational, vocational and medical needs. For these reasons, the statutory maximum penalty for the offense is not an accurate indicator of the potential sentence for a specific defendant.

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