Eight Indicted for Sex Trafficking Teenage Girls

Most Victims were Under 18 and were Recruited from Inland Empire Schools

A federal grand jury has indicted eight people, four of whom allegedly are members of a South Los Angeles street gang, on charges related to the sex trafficking of teenage girls who were recruited and groomed to work as prostitutes across Southern California.

Six of the defendants were arrested on August 9 by members of the Inland Child Exploitation/Prostitution Task Force, which is comprised of agents, deputies, and officers with the FBI; the Riverside County, California Sheriff’s Department; Riverside Police Department; San Bernardino, California Police Department; Pomona, California Police Department; and Ontario, California Police Department. The other two defendants are already in state custody.

A grand jury on August 1, 2012, returned an 18-count indictment that accuses seven of the defendants of conspiring to engage in the sex trafficking of seven teenage girls, six of whom were under the age of 18. The indictment alleges that “force, threats of force, fraud, and coercion would be used to cause the victims to engage in commercial sex acts.”

In court documents asking that each of the defendants be held without bond, prosecutors contend “that the defendants conspired to, and did, recruit, employ, and use minors as prostitutes for their own financial gain. The defendants preyed on vulnerable victims, forced them to become prostitutes, and verbally and physically abused them when they did not perform as required.”

The defendants named in the indictment are:

• Paul Edward Bell, who used multiple monikers, including “J-Roc,” 27, of Lynwood, California, who allegedly is a member of the Rolling 60s Crips street gang;
• Samuel Rogers, aka “Bone,” 22, of Moreno Valley, California, another alleged member of the Rolling 60s.
• Gary Rogers, who uses monikers such as “G-Man,” 23, of Moreno Valley, who also is an alleged member of the street gang and is Samuel Rogers’s brother.
• Christopher Weldon, who is also known by several names, including “Chris Roc,” 22, of Compton, California, the fourth alleged Rolling 60s member named in the indictment who is Bell’s half-brother.
• Javiya Brooks, who is also known by several permutations of “Shady Blue,” 19, of Lynwood, who was the lead prostitute for Bell.
• Kimberly Alberti, who is also known as “Pucca,” 19, of Riverside, who was the lead prostitute for Samuel Rogers.
• Kristy Harrell, 20, of Riverside, who is Gary Rogers’s lead prostitute.
• Su Yan, 30, of Rosemead, California, a Chinese national who allegedly assisted Bell with his prostitution business.

The indictment charges seven of the defendants with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking. Six of the defendants - Bell, Samuel Rogers, Gary Rogers, Weldon, Brooks, and Harrell - are also charged with at least one substantive count of sex trafficking. Samuel Rogers, for example, is charged with six substantive counts of sex trafficking. The substantive sex trafficking charges each carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a potential sentence of life without parole. The indictment also charges Bell with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Yan is named in one count that alleges interstate transportation in aid of a racketeering enterprise.

The investigation in this case began in January 2011, when the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department learned that teenage girls attending schools in the Inland Empire were being recruited to work as prostitutes. The investigation later revealed that Alberti attended one of the schools and recruited underage females by “grooming them,” gaining their trust and telling them that they could make large sums of money by working as prostitutes for Alberti’s pimp, according to court documents. 

The girls who were successfully prostituted were brought to the Los Angeles area, where they were housed at hotels or at the pimps’ apartments. Some of the prostituted victims were housed at Bell’s apartment. The Rogers brothers and Bell also often housed the prostituted victims at motels located in the Los Angeles area. In a motion seeking the detention of the defendants, prosecutors argue that the alleged pimps “assaulted several of the victims in this case by beating them, raping them, and keeping them locked up.”