LOS ANGELES, CA - As part of her ongoing efforts to eradicate human trafficking along the notorious Figueroa corridor, today, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced that her office has secured a guilty verdict against a 49 year-old male defendant charged with three violations of the California Penal Code, including solicitation of prostitution from a minor.
The defendant was found guilty on all counts.
“Combating sex and human trafficking is a priority of mine and this case exemplifies why this continues to remain a top priority for my office,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney. “For far too long, the Figueroa corridor has been an epicenter of trafficking and violent criminal activity and the community has had enough.”
The defendant was charged with three violations of the California Penal Code and was found guilty on all counts, including:
- PC 647.6(a) (Annoying/Molesting a child under 18);
- PC 647(b)(3) (Solicitation of Prostitution from a minor); and,
- PC 647(b)(2) (Solicitation of Prostitution).
Conviction on one of the counts requires the defendant to register as a sex offender.
Proceedings in LA Superior Court Case Number 3CJ03445 were led by Judge Dominguez of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Department 45. Sentencing will take place on April 19, 2024.
This case was handled by the City Attorney’s Criminal Branch.
Since 2023, Feldstein Soto has been helping to lead a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional trafficking task force focused on the Figueroa corridor on South Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles with Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the LAPD, the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office, and the Department of Homeland Security.
The task force is not aimed at prosecuting commercial sex workers. Its focus is to assist trafficking victims, shut down illegal activity, identify, arrest and convict pimps and traffickers, and disrupt buyers of sex services from minors and trafficking victims. The task force also aims to hold predators and profiteers accountable through local, state and federal human trafficking investigations and prosecutions.
In September, Feldstein Soto announced that her office filed a lawsuit to permanently enjoin the prostitution-related and violent activity at one of the motels on South Figueroa, under California’s Red Light Abatement Law, the Public Nuisance Law, and the Unfair Competition Law.