Dejon Pierre Moore, left, and Jennifer Kaye Moeggenberg are two of three people who have been charged in an alleged human trafficking case. (Orange County district attorney’s office / October 1, 2013)
Orange County District Attorney Press Release
For Immediate Release, Case # 13NF3387: October 1, 2013
SANTA ANA – Two men and a woman were charged yesterday for human trafficking and pimping out a minor girl who was lured through Facebook. Kristian Adway, 19, is charged with one felony count each of human trafficking, pandering with a minor over 16 years old by procuring, pimping, pandering, evading while driving recklessly, and one misdemeanor count of resisting and obstructing an officer.
Dejon Pierre Moore, 19, is charged with one felony count each of human trafficking, pimping a minor, pandering with a minor, pimping, and pandering, with a sentencing enhancement for human trafficking by force or fear. Moore has a prior strike conviction for a residential burglary in Los Angeles County in 2012.
Jennifer Kaye Moeggenberg, 23, is charged with one felony count each of human trafficking, pandering with a minor over 16 years old by procuring, and one misdemeanor count of false representation to a peace officer.
If the defendants are convicted, Moore faces a maximum sentence of 17 years and 8 months to life in state prison, Adway faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in state prison, and Moeggenberg faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in state prison. Moore is being held on $1 million bail, and Adway and Moeggenberg are being held on $250,000 bail. The scheduled arraignment was continued in court yesterday to Oct. 18, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. in Department CJ-1, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
Circumstances of the Case
Moore is accused of contacting 17-year-old Jane Doe on Facebook and maintaining a long distance relationship with the victim. On Sept. 21, 2013, Moore is accused of driving to Los Angeles to pick up Jane Doe after she rode a train to meet him. Moore is accused of meeting up with Adway and driving together with Jane Doe to Orange County. Moore is accused of using force and fear to induce Jane Doe to work for him and engage in commercial sex. Moeggenberg is accused of setting rules for the victim and how to behave around sex purchasers.
Moore, Adway, and Moeggenberg, are accused of taking sexually suggestive photos of the victim and posting advertisements of Jane Doe on websites known for prostitution. Moore is accused of collecting the money Jane Doe made from performing illegal sex acts and giving some of the earnings to Adway. Moore is accused of hitting and threatening the victim when she expressed desire to stop providing illegal sex services.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2013, Adway is accused of driving Moore, Moeggenberg, and Jane Doe in Anaheim. Adway is accused of refusing to stop his vehicle for an Anaheim Police Department (APD) officer who was performing a routine traffic stop. Adway is accused of speeding approximately 60 miles per hour and turning into a crowded parking lot. Adway is accused of leaving his vehicle and attempting to flee from the officer on foot. Moeggenberg is accused of having several outstanding warrants and providing false information about her identity to an officer. The defendants were arrested by APD.
This case was investigated by APD and Deputy District Attorney Brad Schoenleben of the HEAT Unit is prosecuting this case.
Proposition 35 and HEAT
In the pimp/prostitution subculture, pimps exploit women and/or children for financial gain often assign ranks to the women they exploit. They 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 or emotional abuse.
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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Tony Rackauckas, District Attorney 401 Civic Center Drive West Santa Ana, CA 92701
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