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Orange County District Attorney Press Release

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Tony Rackauckas, District Attorney
401 Civic Center Drive West
Santa Ana, CA 92701

For Immediate Release Case # 13CF3012               January 15, 2014

Contacts:

Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami Spokesperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486

PIMP CONVICTED OF HAVING WOMAN PERFORM COMMERCIAL SEX ACTS AFTER MEETING VICTIM THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITE

 

SANTA ANA – A pimp was convicted and sentenced yesterday for having a woman perform commercial sex acts after meeting her through a social networking website. Christopher Dominic Harper, 28, Los Angeles, pleaded guilty yesterday, Jan. 14, 2014, to one felony count of conspiracy to commit pandering. He was sentenced to six years in state prison stayed pending completion of three years of formal probation, one year in jail, and restitution.

 

Circumstances of the Case

Harper is a pimp/modern-day slave owner who exploits women and/or children for financial gain. Pimps often establish rigid rules that their victims are expected to follow including requiring victims to speak only when spoken to, address the pimp as “Sir” or “Daddy,” assigning seats in the car based on “rank,” and setting daily quotas that the victims are expected to fulfill. The victims are required to turn over all payment they receive for sex acts from sex purchasers to their pimp. Failure to follow these rules can result in deprivation of food and/or physical and/or emotional abuse.

 

In September 2013, Harper met 19-year-old Jane Doe through a social networking website and arranged to meet with her in person. After meeting her, Harper convinced the victim to perform commercial sex acts for money. He then set a daily quota for the victim and drove her to multiple locations in Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and Orange Counties. Harper collected all of the proceeds earned by the victim from performing commercial sex acts.

 

On Sept. 23, 2013, Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) conducted a covert operation and arrested Harper.

 

This case was investigated by SAPD and Deputy District Attorney Daniel Varon of the HEAT Unit prosecuted this case.

 

Proposition 35 and HEAT

In November 2012, California’s anti-human trafficking Proposition 35 (Prop 35) was enacted in California with 81 percent of the vote, and over 82 percent of the vote in Orange County, to increase the penalty for human trafficking, particularly in cases involving the trafficking of a minor by force.

 

The Orange County District Attorney’s Human Exploitation And Trafficking (HEAT) Unit targets perpetrators who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers. The HEAT Unit uses a tactical plan called PERP: Prosecution, to bring justice for victims of human trafficking and hold perpetrators responsible using Prop 35; Education, to provide law enforcement training to properly handle human trafficking and pandering cases; Resources from public-private partnerships to raise public awareness about human trafficking and provide assistance to the victims; and Publicity, to inform the public and send a message to human traffickers that this crime cannot be perpetrated without suffering severe consequences.  

 

Under the law, human trafficking is described as depriving or violating the personal liberty of another person with the intent to effect a violation of pimping or pandering. Pimping is described as knowingly deriving financial support in whole or in part from the proceeds of prostitution.  Pandering is the act of persuading or procuring an individual to become a prostitute, or procuring and/or arranging for a person work in a house of prostitution.

 

Penal Code Section 236.1 defines:

 

(1) “Coercion” includes any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process; debt bondage; or providing and facilitating the possession of any controlled substance to a person with the intent to impair the person's judgment.

 

(2) “Commercial sex act” means sexual conduct on account of which anything of value is given or received by any person.

 

(3) “Deprivation or violation of the personal liberty of another” includes substantial and sustained restriction of another's liberty accomplished through force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, under circumstances where the person receiving or apprehending the threat reasonably believes that it is likely that the person making the threat would carry it out.

 

(4) “Duress” includes a direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship, or retribution sufficient to cause a reasonable person to acquiesce in or perform an act which he or she would otherwise not have submitted to or performed; a direct or implied threat to destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or possess any actual or purported passport or immigration document of the victim; or knowingly destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating, or possessing any actual or purported passport or immigration document of the victim.

 

(5) “Forced labor or services” means labor or services that are performed or provided by a person and are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, duress, or coercion, or equivalent conduct that would reasonably overbear the will of the person.

 

(6) “Great bodily injury” means a significant or substantial physical injury.

 

(7) “Minor” means a person less than 18 years of age.

 

(8) “Serious harm” includes any harm, whether physical or nonphysical, including psychological, financial, or reputational harm, that is sufficiently serious, under all the surrounding circumstances, to compel a reasonable person of the same background and in the same circumstances to perform or to continue performing labor, services, or commercial sexual acts in order to avoid incurring that harm.

 

(i) The total circumstances, including the age of the victim, the relationship between the victim and the trafficker or agents of the trafficker, and any handicap or disability of the victim, shall be factors to consider in determining the presence of “deprivation or violation of the personal liberty of another,” “duress,” and “coercion” as described in this section.

 

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