United States Ninth Circuit

Defendants' convictions for child sex trafficking and interstate transportation of minors for purposes of prostitution are affirmed where: 1) the considerable similarity between the police's observations and the victim's description was sufficient to lead a person of reasonable caution to conclude that defendant was one of the men who had brought the victims to and from California for purposes of prostitution; 2) a comparison of the elements of the two statutes at issue showed that the indictment was not multiplicitous; and 3) an officer's training and experience qualified her as an expert on the business of prostitution and the relationships between pimps and prostitutes. However, defendants' sentences are vacated where U.S.S.G. section 2G1.3(b)(1)(B)applied only to defendants who exploited a pre-existing parent-like position of authority that defendant simply did not possess.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/02/2009
• Decided 07/08/2010
• Published 07/08/2010

Judges

• William C. Canby, Jr.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Thomas E. Haney, Joan G. Ruffennach