NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Legal professional Duane A. Evans introduced that RANDI LEWIS (a/okay/a “Teddy,” a/okay/a “Teddy P.”), age 34, from Houston, Texas, pleaded responsible on November 2, 2022 earlier than United States District Choose Lance M. Africk to Rely 2 of the indictment pending towards him, charging LEWIS with intercourse trafficking of a kid beneath the age of 14, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Part 1591(a) and 1591(b)(1). The costs stem from LEWIS’S function in bringing a thirteen-year-old feminine from Houston to New Orleans for the aim of her partaking in business intercourse acts in June 2021.
Based on court docket paperwork, LEWIS met his co-conspirator, Chelsea Gee, a feminine born in 2003, in about late 2019 or early 2020. LEWIS recruited Gee to interact in business intercourse acts beneath his route, and he or she complied. LEWIS additionally instituted a sequence of guidelines Gee was to comply with, together with the best way to behave, what to put on, with whom she was allowed to work together (i.e., have a look at and converse to), and the way a lot she was anticipated to earn from partaking in business intercourse acts each day. LEWIS routinely tracked Gee’s location utilizing a location sharing cellular telephone software. LEWIS additionally recurrently engaged in sexual acts with Gee.
Collectively, LEWIS and Gee met the minor sufferer, who was 13 years outdated, within the Houston, Texas space not later than June 21, 2021. At LEWIS’s route, Gee recruited the minor sufferer to carry out business intercourse acts additionally beneath LEWIS’s route. Quickly thereafter, Gee launched the sufferer to LEWIS. After the sufferer agreed, LEWIS organized for he, Gee, and the sufferer to journey to New Orleans on a Greyhound bus for the aim of his co-conspirator and the sufferer to interact in business intercourse acts. Between June 22, 2021, and June 24, 2021, Gee and the sufferer carried out a number of business intercourse acts within the New Orleans space. LEWIS required the minor sufferer to show over all, or most, of the cash she earned from business intercourse acts to LEWIS. LEWIS and Gee gave the minor sufferer instruction and steering on issues associated to the profitable efficiency of business intercourse actions, together with methods to behave, what to put on, the best way to determine and keep away from regulation enforcement, and the best way to greatest solicit and interact in business intercourse actions beneath LEWIS’S route.
Performing at LEWIS’S route, Gee and the minor sufferer solicited business intercourse “dates” in a number of methods. First, they walked alongside streets soliciting prospects. Moreover, LEWIS created and precipitated to be created ads on a web based labeled advert service generally used to promote sexual providers in trade for cash, by means of which LEWIS acquired phone calls, textual content messages, and messages by way of social media purposes inquiring about, scheduling, and arranging prostitution calls along with his co-conspirator and the minor sufferer. LEWIS organized for sexually express photos of the minor sufferer for use within the ads. LEWIS and his co-conspirator additionally gave the minor sufferer illicit and mood-altering medication, together with marijuana, to numb her senses, management her habits, and/or to encourage her to interact in business intercourse acts. Regulation enforcement authorities recovered the minor sufferer at a lodge in Terrytown, Louisiana, on June 24, 2021.
LEWIS faces a compulsory minimal time period of imprisonment of fifteen (15) years and as much as a most time period of life in jail, a high-quality of as much as $250,000.00, a lifetime of supervised launch after imprisonment, and a compulsory $100 particular evaluation payment. LEWIS can also be required to register as a intercourse offender and make restitution funds to the minor sufferer. Sentencing has been scheduled for March 8, 2023, at 2:00 pm earlier than Choose Africk.
This case was introduced as a part of Undertaking Secure Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in Might 2006 by the Division of Justice to fight the rising epidemic of kid sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the USA Attorneys’ Workplaces and the Legal Division’s Little one Exploitation and Obscenity Part, Undertaking Secure Childhood marshals federal, state, and native assets to find, apprehend, and prosecute people who sexually exploit youngsters, and to determine and rescue victims. For extra details about Undertaking Secure Childhood, please go to www.usdoj.gov/psc. For extra details about web security schooling, please go to www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on on the tab “assets.”
U.S. Legal professional Evans praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Workplace on this matter. Assistant United States Legal professional Jordan Ginsberg is in control of the prosecution.
