Three Houston males from a hoop of suspected youngster intercourse traffickers had been ordered to stay in federal custody Tuesday in a case triggered when a 15-year-old Houston ISD pupil informed her college counselor she’d been the sufferer of a trafficking operation on the infamous Bissonnet Observe.
Clarence Christopher “Loopy Chris” Chambers, 29, Damarquis “Lilblue” McGee, 23, and Javon “Glizzy” Yaw Opoku, 20, appeared at particular person Zoom hearings earlier than U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Sam Sheldon and can be detained till trial on the Joe Corley federal detention facility. Opoku, who’s individually accused of capital homicide in Pasadena, and McGee declined via their legal professionals on Tuesday to problem their detention on the costs.
Others accused of pimping a number of teenage ladies in a gang-affiliated scheme are anticipated to seem this week in federal courtroom, together with Andres “Andro” Serrano Portillo, who had his first courtroom look final week. Portillo has a detention listening to set for Friday.
Chambers, McGee and Opoku and others had been awaiting trial in Harris County on trafficking allegations. In federal courtroom, they now face a lot steeper sentences of as much as life in jail on youngster trafficking prices that contain the repeated use of digital media and cell telephones.
Anuj A. Shah, who’s representing McGee, stated his shopper can be getting into a not responsible plea.
“We’ll vigorously pursue justice within the authorized course of in order that his case is tried in a courtroom of legislation and never within the courtroom of public opinion,” Shah stated.
Protection attorneys for the opposite three males declined to remark or didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the allegations.
Chambers got here to the eye of authorities after a 15-year-old lady who had been absent from her different college for awhile returned to campus. On Oct. 4, 2019, a faculty counselor and trainer at Disciplinary Various Schooling Program in north Houston contacted the Houston Police Division to report she’d informed them she had been trafficked to johns within the Bissonnet space between July and September of that yr. A detective from HPD’s human trafficking and vice unit started an investigation. Federal investigators have since linked the trafficking crew to not less than a dozen youngster and grownup victims.
Chambers is accused of recruiting the 15-year-old at a celebration in Irvington attended by pimps and younger ladies. The coed informed the varsity psychologist she had earned $400 to $500 every week for intercourse acts in vehicles and motels round Bissonnet and he or she gave most of that cash to Chambers. She additionally informed college employees she had recruited different feminine schoolmates to work for Chambers.
Chambers’ protection legal professional, Joshua Lake, questioned HPD Detective Melanie Jones on the listening to Tuesday about this timeline and the 15-year-old’s historical past of prostitution previous to assembly Chambers. Jones corrected the report, explaining that Chambers allegedly recruited her after the social gathering. She admitted police weren’t in a position to verify that younger ladies attended the social gathering. The detective additionally stated, below questioning, that she believed the lady had been concerned within the intercourse commerce previous to assembly Chambers.
The detective discovered three different minor trafficking victims whose circumstances she believed had been linked to the identical crew of pimps, in accordance with courtroom paperwork. Chambers used social media and texts to allegedly promote the sufferer to prospects.
McGee belongs to the Discussion board Park Crips, in accordance with allegations. Opoku and Portillo — whose listening to is forthcoming — are youthful gang members who’re additionally loyal to the Crips. All three are accused of working collectively in varied capacities to prostitute younger ladies on the Observe.
Police realized of McGee’s involvement in December when after the mom of a 14-year-old informed the Pct. 1 Harris County Constable her daughter had run away in July 2019 and had been lacking ever since. The teenager’s sister had seen pictures of the lacking lady on social media the place she gave the impression to be strolling on the Observe within the Discussion board Park space. The posts additionally confirmed pictures of her with McGee and piles of cash, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.
The 14-year-old informed police she had been trafficked by McGee and that he had crushed her on quite a few events. Police famous that she had a tattoo below her eye of his first title, Damarquis, paperwork say.
Portillo’s involvement got here to the eye of HPD in October 2019 when the mom of a 16-year-old stated her youngster was being held in opposition to her will by a intercourse trafficker, in accordance with courtroom paperwork. The mom stated her daughter texted asking to be rescued. Police discovered the lady at a home and later informed them in an interview she been trafficked and raped, in accordance with allegations.
Her pimp, she stated, was a man she knew from Instagram as “Andro.” Police linked texts between her and the pimp to Portillo.
Among the many messages had been texts the place her pimp informed her how a lot to cost for varied intercourse acts and admonished her to not inform anybody her age. Different texts got here from a cellphone linked to McGee’s mom.
Along with Chambers, Portillo and Opoku are additionally accused of trafficking the 15-year-old who alerted her college counselor in October 2019.
The coed informed investigators in 2020 that Opoku hit her as a result of McGee, a extra senior gang member, had informed him she had been making an attempt to achieve the eye of different pimps, paperwork say. Opoku had additionally hit her, she stated, as a result of she’d stated she was drained and he or she didn’t wish to stroll the Observe, which this crew known as “The Blade.”
