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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 # 11NF3418         September 19, 2014

Contacts:

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

MAN CONVICTED OF PIMPING AND PANDERING WOMAN BY DRIVING HER TO ORANGE COUNTY TO PERFORM COMMERCIAL SEX ACTS

 

WESTMINSTER – A man was convicted yesterday of pimping and pandering a woman from Riverside County by driving her to Orange County for the purpose of performing commercial sex acts for his benefit. Damaris Markyse Thompson, 24, Hemet, was found guilty by a jury Sept. 18, 2014, of one felony count each of pimping and pandering. He faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison at his sentencing Oct. 2, 2014, at 1:30 p.m. in Department W-9, West Justice Center, Westminster.

 

Circumstances of the Case

Thompson is a pimp who exploits women for financial gain. Pimps often establish rigid rules that their victims are expected to follow including requiring them to address the pimp as “Daddy.” The victim in this case was required to turn over all payment she received for sex acts from sex purchasers to her pimp.

 

In 2011, Thompson was driving in Hemet and engaged in conversation with 22-year-old Jane Doe as she was walking on a street. He convinced the victim to go to Orange County with him. Later that evening, the defendant told Jane Doe that he owns her and provided revealing clothing for the victim to wear and a cell phone to communicate with when arranging meetings with sex purchasers.

 

Thompson pimped the victim by having her perform commercial sex acts with sex purchasers and collecting the money she made.

 

On a later date, Jane Doe attempted to leave the defendant. Thompson threatened Jane Doe by placing his hand around her neck and telling her he owns her.

 

On Nov. 14, 2011, an Anaheim Police Department (APD) office contacted Jane Doe after seeing her on a street known for prostitution. APD began investigating this case, located Thompson, and arrested him.

 

Members of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force (OCHTTF) and the Orange County District Attorney’s (OCDA) Office work proactively to protect women and minors from falling victim to commercial sexual exploitation. This case was investigated by OCHTTF, a partnership between APD, California Highway Patrol, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Huntington Beach Police Department, OCDA, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and community and non-profit partners.

 

Deputy District Attorney Daniel Varon of the HEAT Unit is prosecuting 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.

 

A component of the OCHTTF is the OCDA’s Human Exploitation And Trafficking (HEAT) Unit, which 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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