RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA – A Lynwood gang member and leader of a prostitute ring, who used force, fraud and coercion to get teen-age girls to work as prostitutes across Southern California, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison today.
U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips sentenced Paul Edward Bell, 30, a member of the Rolling 60s Crips street gang, to prison after he plead guilty to federal sex trafficking charges.
Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing report that Bell “not only used his fists, a cane, a shoe, and other objects against the females, he also pepper sprayed one of the victims in her face.”
In addition, the report stated that Bell “also threatened the victims with physical abuse, put a gun to the head of one of the victims, and locked at least two of the victims in his apartment. The physical and mental abuse and anguish suffered by the victims at the hands of defendant has and will continue to deeply affect the victims and their families.”
Bell had been convicted of two state criminal cases that are sex-trafficking related, according to officials.
Bell is among eight defendants convicted in the case stemming from a federal grand jury indictment filed in August 2012.
Bell and his co-defendants used minors as prostitutes to make money. He was the leader of the organization that preyed on vulnerable victims, convinced them to become prostitutes, and verbally and physically abused them when they did not perform as required, federal officials said.
Bell admitted that in 2011 he forced at least four minor victims – aged 15 to 17 – to work as prostitutes in Lynwood and Compton.
The investigation began in January of 2011, when the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department learned that teen-age girls attending schools in the Inland Empire were being recruited to work as prostitutes, authorities said.
The investigation later revealed that Kimberly Alberti, 21, of Riverside, who was the lead prostitute for Samuel Rogers, attended one of the schools and recruited underage females by “grooming them” – or gaining their trust.
She told them that they could make large sums of money by working as prostitutes for Alberti’s pimp.
The girls who were successfully recruited to work as prostitutes were brought to the Los Angeles area, where they were housed at hotels or at the pimps’ apartments. Some of the victims were housed at Bell’s apartment, according to authorities.
The Rogers brothers and Bell also often housed the victim prostitutes at motels located in the Los Angeles area.
The other seven defendants in this case who previously pleaded guilty are:
- Samuel Rogers, also known as Bone, 24, of Moreno Valley, is an alleged member of the Rolling 60s. He pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a minor and is currently scheduled to be sentenced on April 14;
- Gary Rogers, who used monikers such as G Man, 25, of Moreno Valley, an alleged member of the street gang. He is Samuel Rogers’ brother. He plead guilty to conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 11.
- Christopher Weldon, Bell’s half-brother, who is also known by several names, including Chris Roc, of Compton, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking. He received a six-year prison sentence.
- Javiya Brooks, who is also known by several permutations of Shady Blue, 21, of Lynwood, was the lead prostitute for Bell. She plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 21.
- Alberti, of Riverside, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking. She received a two-year sentence.
- Kristy Harrell, 22, of Riverside, who was Gary Rogers’ lead prostitute, plead guilty to interstate transportation in the aid of racketeering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 28.
- Su Yan, 32, of Rosemead, a Chinese national who allegedly assisted Bell with his prostitution business, plead guilty to interstate transportation in the aid of racketeering. Yan was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
This case was investigation by the Inland Child Exploitation/Prostitution Task Force, which is comprised of agents, deputies and officers with the FBI, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the Riverside Police Department, the San Bernardino Police Department, the Pomona Police Department, and the Ontario Police Department.