On Friday night, October 27th, a patrol officer noticed what appeared to be a prostitute in the 1400 block of W. Texas St. and stopped to investigate. After establishing rapport with the young lady, the officer learned that she was a 16-year-old runaway from Fresno, CA and potentially a victim of human trafficking. The Investigations Bureau was contacted and a detective from the Family Violence Unit took over the investigation. Det. Brunie was able to speak with the victim who admitted that she had been trafficked in Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Oakland, and San Jose over the past four years.
Using information gained from their conversations with the victim, detectives were able to identify her current pimp and determine where the two had been living for the past week, a residence in the 600 block of Utah St. Detectives obtained a search warrant for the residence. When they served the warrant detectives contacted Leshone Johnson, a 38-year-old Fairfield resident at the home. Johnson was identified as the male who had been pimping the underage victim over the past week. He was later booked into Solano County Jail on several charges including 266(I) PC – Pandering and 266(H)(A) PC – Pimping. A photo of Johnson is attached to this release.
By taking the time to develop a rapport with the young victim, the patrol officer was able to determine that she was being victimized by a male over twice her age and subsequently alert our Family Violence Unit to the human trafficking. Detectives contacted and arrested the male responsible for trafficking her, removing the young lady from a dangerous situation. Solano County Child Welfare Services was contacted and took the victim into protective custody so she could be returned home.
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, in 2016 approximately 1 out of 6 endangered runaways were likely child sex trafficking victims. Globally there are an estimated 4.5 million people in forced sexual exploitation. This young victim was just one of millions of people being trafficked for sexual purposes. As a result of the patience shown by our officers and detectives taking the time to talk with her, we can say that today there is one less victim being trafficked.
