OAKLAND – Kaybaun Rodgers was sentenced today to 121 months
in prison for sex trafficking of a minor, announced United States Attorney Alex
G. Tse and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John
Bennett. The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Phyllis J. Hamilton,
Chief United States District Judge.
Rodgers, 26, whose last known address was in Oakland,
Calif., pleaded guilty to the charge on September 5, 2018. According to the
plea agreement, between August 28, 2016, and February 19, 2017, he used the
website Backpage.com to advertise the availability of a minor for commercial
sex acts. Rodgers posted at least 46 advertisements depicting and describing
the minor victim. Rodgers also admitted
that from August 28, 2016, to April 20, 2018, he collected proceeds from the
minor which were derived from the commercial sex acts in which the minor participated. For example, on April 20, 2018, Rodgers
instructed the minor to send him $50 via Western Union after she had received
$200 in exchange for a commercial sex act.
Rodgers further admitted that on October 24, 2017, he went
to a hotel room where he made a video recording of the minor and a male who had
solicited a commercial sex act through one of the Rodgers’s Backpage.com
advertisements. In the recording,
Rodgers confirmed with the minor that she had received $120 for performing the
sex act. Rodgers then attempted to
extort additional money from the man by threatening to post the video on
Facebook unless the man paid more money.
Rodgers also used the minor to produce visual depictions of
sexually explicit conduct and used his cellular telephone to record videos
depicting the minor performing sex acts on himself.
On August 2, 2018, Rodgers was charged in a federal
information with one count of sex trafficking of a minor, in violation of 18
U.S.C. §§ 1951(a)(1), (a)(2) and (b)(2).
Pursuant to his plea agreement, Rodgers pleaded guilty to the
charge.
In addition to the prison term, Chief Judge Hamilton
sentenced the defendant to a 20-year period of supervised release. Rodgers also
was ordered to register as a sex offender.
The defendant has been in custody since his arrest in April of 2018 and
will begin serving his sentence immediately.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Ann Baehr-Jones is
prosecuting the case with the assistance of Michelle Alter. The prosecution is
the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with
assistance from the Union City Police Department.
No comments:
Post a Comment