Juan Mendez will never victimize children in Memphis again.
If the 33-year-old outlives his 50-year
prison sentence, he will be deported back to his home country of Mexico.
Mendez, who raped and beat teens and forced them into prostitution,
was prosecuted in federal court, his case the launch of a campaign by
the U.S. Attorney's Office in Memphis and federal agents to crack down
on human sex traffickers.
Memphis is now considered a model nationally for its initiative to
maximize prison stints for sex traffickers, said U.S. Atty. Ed Stanton.
Stanton, a Memphis native who took over the office in 2010, created a
Civil Rights Unit, which encompasses
human trafficking, in February. He
has assigned three prosecutors to the unit, and has vowed to
aggressively target traffickers.
"Human trafficking is nothing more than modern-day slavery. The
victims often are some of our most vulnerable," Stanton said during an
interview at his office Friday.
"There's no question it's a priority for this district and this office."
Veteran prosecutor Steve Parker, who heads Memphis' Civil Rights
Unit, has been selected to train fledgling agents how to spot and
investigate human trafficking at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. He and
local FBI Special Agent Tracey Harris also have trained prosecutors and
police in Guam and Saipan.
Traffickers frequently target girls and women from poor families or
those who were sexually abused, runaways, and minors in the state
foster-care system. They advertise on the Internet and take the women
and girls to truck stops and major sporting events.
Mendez used his girlfriend, Cristina Andres Perfecto, who also
pleaded guilty to sex trafficking, to recruit girls as young as 12 from
poor Mexican villages, promising them legitimate jobs in the
United
States so they could send money back home.
Instead, he would take the girls back and forth from Memphis and
Nashville and to other areas of the South to brothels. One girl, age 14,
thought she would be working as a waitress. Instead, she was forced to
have sex with 40 men her first day, Parker said.
At the state level, Mendez likely would have faced 15 to 30 years and
then could have shaved years off his sentence with good behavior behind
bars. In contrast, federal prison sentences are often served
day-for-day, said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeremy Baker.
"It's a high-priority issue right now with the FBI and Department of
Justice overall," said Baker, who oversees the Memphis division's
Public Corruption/Civil Rights Squad. "And that involves investigating
and trying to make the public more aware to develop leads and better
assist victims."
Baker also supervises a Civil Rights Task Force which includes members of the Shelby County Sheriff's Office.
The FBI teamed with Memphis police and
U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents on Oct. 13, 2006, to raid six Memphis brothels in a
single day, netting Mendez and several others who have been sent to
federal prison for trafficking.
Other Memphis cases have involved local women and minors.
"This is not only people being brought in from across the border," Baker said. "This also is happening in neighborhoods."
On Monday, Mitchell Lamont Chest was sentenced to 15 years and eight
months in a federal prison for forcing an Illinois teenager into
prostitution in Chicago and later in Memphis.
Convicted trafficker Leonard Augusta Fox, 43, is serving 25 years in a
federal prison for recruiting Memphis girls ages 13-17 and forcing them
into prostitution at apartment complexes and Tunica gaming hotels.
Memphis native Terrence Arnett Yarbrough is awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Prosecutors say he reigned over a dozen teens and women with
intimidation and extreme violence. Yarbrough branded four victims with
his nickname, "T-Rex"; knocked out a teen's front teeth and chopped her
hair off with a knife; poured bleach on a woman before burning her with
an iron and beating her with a padlock; and smashed another woman's head
into a car before stripping skin off of her back, according to the
federal charges against him.
Memphian Charles Kizer, 52, is scheduled to go on trial in federal court in September on sex-trafficking charges.
An 18-year-old told investigators she met Kizer in Knoxville and
thought he was going to give her drugs.
Instead he kidnapped her and
brought her to Memphis where he forced her into prostitution, the
federal charges allege. He is accused of keeping a hatchet under his car
seat and threatening to chop her head off if she didn't cooperate.
If convicted, Kizer and Yarbrough would each face a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
-- Beth Warren: (901) 529-2383
Source: /www.commercialappeal.com
