Long Beach Man Guilty for Second Time in Federal Court of Transporting Women Across State Lines to Work as Prostitutes

SANTA ANA, CA—A Long Beach man with a long history of forcing women into the sex trade pleaded guilty this morning in a sex trafficking case and is expected to be sent to prison for another decade.

William Earl Flavors, also known as “Andre,” 40, who formerly resided in Seattle, pleaded guilty this morning to a charge of transportation into prostitution.

Flavors pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton, who scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 9. While Judge Staton will make the final decision, prosecutors and Flavors agree that the appropriate sentence in this case is the statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. The 10-year sentence is much longer than the sentence that would be expected for this crime under the United States Sentencing Guidelines, and this 10-year sentence would run consecutive to a four-year sentence he is currently serving in relation to the same conduct.

In court this morning, Flavors admitted that he transported two victims in 2012 from Long Beach to Las Vegas, where they were forced or coerced to work as prostitutes. Flavors also admitted he used coercion and force—including physical abuse and threats of additional physical abuse—to make one of the victims work for him as a prostitute for an eight-month period in 2012.

In a previous case, Flavors was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office and received a 14-year prison sentence in May 2000. In that case, Flavors admitted transporting two teenage girls from Washington and forcing them to work as prostitutes in Orange County.

Flavors completed his sentence in late 2011 and was on supervised release until October 2012, when he was arrested by Long Beach Police after a woman reported being attacked by Flavors. Flavors pleaded guilty in state court last year to pimping in relation to his activities in 2012, and he was sentenced to four years in state prison.

Earlier this year, United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney found Flavors to be in violation of his supervised release in the prior federal court case. Judge Carney revoked his supervised release and sentenced Flavors to a four-year prison term, which he is currently serving.

The sentencing that Flavors will receive from Judge Staton in relation to today’s guilty plea will run consecutive to the sentence that he is currently serving.

The current case against Flavors was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Long Beach Police Department.

Contacts:

• Assistant United States Attorney Sandy Leal: (714) 338-3531
• Assistant United States Attorney Brett Sagel: (714) 338-3598