Man Previously Convicted of Transporting Minors to Work as Prostitutes Faces New Charges of Sex Trafficking Women

SANTA ANA, CA—A Seattle man with a long history of forcing women into the sex trade was arraigned this morning on new charges that accuse him of sex trafficking and could send him to prison for at least another 15 years.

William Earl Flavors, who is sometimes known as “Andre,” 40, pleaded not guilty this morning after a federal grand jury indicted him on one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion and two counts of transportation into prostitution. Flavors allegedly brought two victims from Long Beach to Las Vegas, where they were forced or coerced to work as prostitutes.

The sex trafficking count carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years in federal prison.

Flavors was previously prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office in a case that brought him 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. Authorities believe that Flavors began pimping women soon after being released from prison. Flavors pleaded guilty in state court last year to pimping and was sentenced to four years in prison.

In a document filed for the hearing to revoke Flavors’ supervised release, prosecutors wrote, “Placing women into prostitution, in addition to physically assaulting and threatening the women to ensure that the women stayed with defendant and worked for defendant, cannot be described as anything other than deplorable. The fact that defendant committed these acts while under this court’s supervision for previously beating and forcing minors into prostitution makes the nature and circumstances of defendant’s acts even more appalling.”

United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney earlier this year found Flavors to be in violation of his supervised release, based on his state court pimping conviction. Judge Carney revoked his supervised release and sentenced him to a four-year prison term.

Judge Carney said the “violation offends a woman’s right to liberty, dignity, and self-determination. Women have a fundamental right to be free from bodily exploitation and not have their bodies exploited by Mr. Flavors and others as a source of profit.”

At his arraignment, a trial was scheduled for November 5 before United States District Judge Josephine S. Tucker.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

The sex trafficking charge carries a potential life sentence and a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison. The two counts of transportation into prostitution each carry a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

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