Houston’s ‘King of Bissonnet’ convicted on sex trafficking charges – By Michael Murney (Houston Chronicle) / Oct 11, 2023
A jury found Larry “Lavish” Lewis, 47, guilty of forcing four women to engage in commercial sex on and around Bissonnet Street in Houston.
A Houston federal jury has found a 47-year-old man guilty of sex trafficking four women using force and coercion and of taking women across state lines to engage in prostitution.
Larry “Lavish” Lewis “used physical force and coercion to compel four women to engage in commercial sex in the Bissonnet street area of Houston and various cities in Texas and Louisiana,” according to a release issued Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Texas. After a six-day trial, a jury in Lewis’ trial deliberated for three hours before convicting Lewis, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Lewis’ victims described during the trial how Lewis lured them into forced prostitution with “false promises of good money and a good life,” U.S. Attorney’s Office officials said in the release. “Lewis confiscated the identification cards of two women and tightly controlled access to their hotel rooms. The women were completely dependent on him for food, lodging and basic necessities,” officials continued.
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