5 arrested in connection to sex-trafficking, tattooing of minors in New Orleans, St. Tammany – By Olivia Prentzel (The Times-Picayune) / March 30 2019
A total of five people were arrested in New Orleans and St. Tammany Parish as a result of an investigation into sex trafficking in which police said girls who were being pimped out were also given tattoos, including a face tattoo for one girl that read “numb,” according to court records.
One of the victims, age 16, was rescued from a New Orleans motel, after days in which she had been drugged, beaten and raped by several men, records said.
New Orleans police arrested Darnell Johnson, 26, after a 17-year-old runaway girl told detectives he let her keep clothes at his house while she and another girl were being pimped out by two other men, court records show. Johnson gave the girl tattoos, including the one on the face, the records said.
Johnson was arrested Monday (March 25) and booked with two counts of tattooing of a minor and one count of contributing to the delinquency of minors, records said. He also faces a charge of illegal carrying of a weapon by a person convicted of domestic battery. Police found a handgun during a search of his Gert Town home, the records said.
Darnell Johnson, 26, was arrested Monday (March 25) and booked with two counts of tattooing of a minor and one count of distributing to the delinquency of minors, jail records show.
Police said Johnson tattooed the 17-year-old girl during the same time period the girl and two other men, later identified as Jayson Figueroa and Cordarrell Rudolph, pimped out a 16-year-old runaway. After Figueroa and Rudolph had sex with the 16-year-old girl, they dropped the two girls off at Johnson’s house, court records said.
Figueroa and Rudolph were arrested and face charges of trafficking of children for sexual purposes, felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and second-degree rape, court records show.
The 17-year-old girl, who police described as a habitual runaway, faces a charge of trafficking of children for sexual purposes after police accused her of recruiting the 16-year-old girl, also described as a runaway, into having sex with men for money. Figueroa, Rudolph and the 17-year-old girl were booked into St. Tammany Parish jail.
Kortlen Hubbard, who admitted to having oral sex with the 16-year-old girl, was also arrested and charged with felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile. He was booked into Orleans Parish jail, with Johnson.
During an investigation led by Louisiana State Police, officers identified the accused traffickers through information found on social media accounts, the 16-year-old girl’s relatives and a phone call with Figueroa. In that call, authorities indicated, Figueroa admitted to having sex with the two girls, but refused to reveal his location or bring the girls home.
On Feb. 2, troopers found the 16-year-old girl in a hotel in the 500 block of Canal Street. She had been drugged, beaten and raped by seven men over the course of five days, court documents said.
The 16-year-old girl identified Figueroa from a photographic lineup provided by police and said that she was “1,000% certain” that he was the man who gave her Xanax, opioids and other drugs and raped her while in his Slidell home.
She also identified Rudolph from photos and told police she had sex with him several times over the course of the week while “highly drugged.” She told police that he pimped her out to at least 4 other men in New Orleans’ 9th Ward and Uptown areas, and charged each man between $750 to $800 to have sex with her.
The girl told police that she met Rudolph through the 17-year-old girl, who was also heavily on drugs. The younger girl described to police abuse that she said took place at the house of a friend of the 17-year-old. While they were there, the 16-year-old said, a man put a “clear liquid” in her arm after she refused to have sex with him, court documents stated. He continued to try to have sex with her before he threw her to the ground.
Afterward, the 16-year-old told police, she slept under a bridge for a few hours before heading to Bourbon Street with the 17-year-old girl.
In an interview with police, the 17-year-old girl told officers the 16-year-old girl sent her a message on Snapchat asking for help running away. After the two met at a gas station in the 9th Ward, they both went to Rudolph’s house, court documents said. The 17-year-old girl told police that she never told the 16-year-old to prostitute herself and if she was doing that, she was “doing it on her own.”
The older girl also told police, while “bragging,” that Johnson gave her a tattoo of a crown on her left forearm and “numb” below her left eye, the documents said. According to the documents, she often hung out at Johnson’s house, but did not sleep there.
Police questioned Rudolph, who said he was not prostituting the girls, court documents said. He told police he picked them up from a house in Mid-City and went back to Figueroa’s apartment in Slidell, where he woke up with hickies on his neck. He did not remember if he had sex with the 16-year-old girl, but told police that he had oral and vaginal sex with the 17-year-old while they were both highly intoxicated, the records said. Rudolph also told officers he saw the 17-year-old take Xanax that night.
Rudolph said he confronted the 16-year-old girl after a friend texted him saying that Rudolph was wanted by police for trafficking, the records show. He told the 16-year-old that he knew she was a runaway and asked if he should take her home, to which she responded “no,” Rudolph told officers.
Johnson’s bond was set at $22,000 and he was appointed a public defender. His criminal history includes convictions dating back to 2014, when he pleaded guilty to domestic abuse battery, theft of $750 and violation of protective orders. Since then, he has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor carnal knowledge of a juvenile — originally charged as a felony, but amended by a judge — in 2016, two counts of domestic abuse in 2017, and simple assault in 2018.
Bond information for Figueroa, Rudolph, Hubbard and the 17-year-old girl was not immediately available.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline is an anti-trafficking hotline serving victims and survivors of human trafficking. The hotline can be reached by emailing help@humantraffickinghotline.org, submitting a tip through the online tip reporting form and visiting the website at www.humantraffickinghotline.org. You can also call 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733.
Here’s what experts want you to know about human trafficking in New Orleans
Human traffickers don’t discriminate and can target people of any age, gender identity or socioeconomic status, experts said.
