Men Plead Guilty to Transporting Teenage Girls from California to Nevada to Work as Prostitutes
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 21, 2014 |
LAS VEGAS—Two California men pleaded guilty today to felony sex trafficking crimes for inducing and enticing two minor girls to travel from Oakland, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, to work as prostitutes during April and May 2013, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.
Ray Darnell Webb, 19, and Seagram Joshua Miller, 21, both of Hayward, California, who were arrested and indicted in May 2013, pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and enticement and are scheduled to be sentenced on April 29, 2014, by U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson. The men face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine and will have to register as sex offenders.
“We must work together as a community to prevent children from getting involved with sex trafficking,” said United States Attorney Bogden. “The pimps who scour the streets, schools, and online communities preying on boys and girls are predators, and we will work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to ensure that they are prosecuted.”
According to their plea agreements, in early 2013, Webb and Miller met one of the victims, a 12-year-old female, in Oakland, California, where she was working as a prostitute. Shortly thereafter, the 12-year-old began working as a prostitute for Webb and Miller and provided the money she made working as a prostitute to them. In about April 2013, Miller met a 16-year-old female on Facebook, and she also began working as a prostitute for Miller and Webb. In April 2013, Miller, Webb, and the two minor girls decided to travel to Las Vegas to make money. Before leaving, Webb and the 16-year-old girl posted an advertisement on MyRedbook.com so that they would have dates lined up when they arrived in Las Vegas. The advertisement contained photographs of the 16-year-old. On April 29, 2013, Webb, Miller, and the two minor girls drove from Oakland to Las Vegas and stayed in a rented hotel room on Las Vegas Boulevard. Both girls worked as prostitutes on April 30 and in early May.
The cases were investigated the FBI and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, as part of the Innocence Lost Task Force. The cases were prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Nicholas D. Dickinson and Phillip N. Smith, Jr.
The cases were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), 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, PSC 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 PSC, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.