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Members of Metro Police’s vice unit walk from the parking garage to the service elevators of a Las Vegas Boulevard condo tower in 2009 to search the condominium of a suspected pimp.
By Tovin Lapan (contact) 
Monday, March 11, 2013 | 2 a.m.
Sun archives
- Prospect of harsher sentences is on the horizon for Las Vegas pimps (11-02-2012)
- Sex trafficking of children: Las Vegas’ deep, dark secret (11-01-2012)
- Las Vegas is ‘ground zero’ for child sex trafficking, Metro vice officer says (09-20-2012)
- A journey from good student to underage prostitute (04-02-2012)
- One woman’s escape from human trafficking (04-03-2012)
- Woman shares story to save others from sex trafficking (10-01-2011)
Alisha was 17 years old when she was kicked out of school, lost a basketball scholarship and subsequently was recruited into prostitution by Raymond Sharpe.
Sharpe, by that time, was already a pro at picking up teenage girls and trafficking them throughout the country as prostitutes, according to court records. For years he had honed his radar for the weak and vulnerable, carefully crafting his combination of emotional and physical control to keep his prostitutes in line. His litany of arrests – and less frequent convictions – did little to deter his commitment to a life of crime.
A year into her servitude, Alisha ran away. Sharpe tracked down Alisha’s younger sister and called Alisha. Sharpe was with Alisha’s sister at an ice cream parlor. The threat was clear. Alisha returned to the fold.
Alisha met Sharpe in 1996. It was not until July 2011, after Sharpe beat Alisha, threatened to kill her and she fled from her home wearing nothing but a thong, that Sharpe was headed to jail for good.
Police, prosecutors and academics who focus on sex trafficking and pandering say the details of Sharpe’s case are all too familiar. Pimps control their world with brutal cruelty, can maintain networks while incarcerated, sometimes earn millions a year and frequently are difficult to bring to justice.
In the wake of the Feb. 21 shooting on the Strip, in which both the alleged shooter and one of the victims were suspected pimps, numerous questions have arisen about the criminal subculture of sex trafficking and pandering.
“Las Vegas is selling sex every which way,” said Alexis Kennedy, a UNLV professor of criminal justice who studies sex trafficking. “That’s what we’re selling in this city, indoors and outdoors; everything is represented. It is a multibillion-dollar industry, and we are only able to identify and work with a portion of that.
Photos and videos on social media of men flashing wads of $100 bills, driving luxury cars and surrounded by women make the lifestyle look appealing. But looks can be deceiving.
“We shouldn’t judge the institution based on some glamorized info we get from media,” Kennedy said. “The levels of violence and the nature of this subculture is not what we’ve been presented in the media.”
The Clark County District Attorney’s Office said it prosecutes a couple of hundred cases related to sex trafficking each year. That may only be scratching the surface in the local sex trade.
Although the members of law enforcement, the justice system and academia interviewed for this article were not asked to comment specifically on the Strip shooting, an ongoing investigation, their insights help to shine a light on the lives and methods of pimps, a sector of society with which few law-abiding citizens ever come in contact.
Setting up shop
Pimps can be found across the United States. They frequently operate in more than one city.
“Typically (pimps) are going to have networking abilities already established in any city before they arrive,” said Lt. Karen Hughes of the Metro Police vice squad. “A lot of times the pimps don’t just come to Vegas and live here; they come to Vegas and they work their girls out of Las Vegas, but it might not be their resident state. Las Vegas is a destination for many, many, many pimps.”
For recruitment, social media has been a boon for pimps, expanding their reach and taking their overtures off the streets.
“Social media is huge right now, and that’s been the biggest change I think over the last five years,” Hughes said. “It’s become such an easy venue to communicate … a Facebook or MySpace or any other social-networking site where people can connect frequently is going to be a recruiting angle for them.
“Let’s not make any mistake; they still are going into traditional venues like areas where kids are going to be most vulnerable — schools, places where kids congregate — and they are going to look for particularly young girls who are disconnected or disassociated from stable families and are looking for acceptance with someone.”
Once the recruitment ends, the “grooming period” – earning the woman’s trust and laying out the rules of procedure – begins.
“They offer friendship and kindness. They may sell it as protection or love, but the idea is: ‘I’m in your corner. I’ll help you survive.’” Kennedy said.
The girl is told how to act, how to spend money, how to interact with clients and how much money is expected at the end of each night. Often the girls are “branded,” Kennedy said, with tattoos like bar codes, the pimp’s name or alias, or perhaps something as simple as a symbol, a single dollar sign on the inside of the woman’s forearm.
Typically the pimp has a “bottom girl” who is the most trusted and will participate in the recruitment and training of other women.
Pimps frequently run legitimate businesses on the side. Sharpe was CEO of All in One Motoring, a car-rental business.
Raymond Christopher Sharpe
“A lot of pimps will have legitimate businesses,” said Liz Mercer, a prosecutor for the Clark County District Attorney’s Office who handles sex trafficking cases and helped prosecute Sharpe. “(Sharpe) had an automobile rental company, and it was very much a network with other pimps. Sharpe rents cars, and another pimp has an audio system company and installs amazing audio systems in the cars. A lot of the front businesses have to do with the music, fashion and entertainment industries.”
Day jobs aside, authorities say pimps draw their real income from sex trafficking.
“Defendant has clearly made a living as a pimp for over 26 years,” the sentencing memo from the Clark County District Attorney for Raymond Sharpe states succinctly.
Sharpe, according to court records, had a history of pandering dating to 1985. Time and again Sharpe would be arrested and either escape charges or serve a fraction of his sentence and return to his criminal lifestyle within a year or two.
Rule your roost
Control is king in sex trafficking, and although pimps may woo women into prostitution by showering them with gifts and expensive cars, they always control the money. Any honeymoon is inevitably short-lived.
“Once these young women get caught up in that lifestyle, there are a lot of degrading acts, as you can imagine, and there’s also that shame and guilt that goes along with it. They don’t value themselves any longer,” Hughes said. “Manipulation is huge. ”
If manipulating the mind isn’t enough, pimps will turn to manipulating the body.
“Violence is a very big part of the subculture, and specifically when the rules of engagement that are established are broken,” Hughes said.
In 2002, Alisha reported she had attempted to flee. Sharpe tracked her down and, while driving on Blue Diamond Road near Decatur Boulevard in his Mercedes Benz CLK430, he reportedly opened fire on the car in which Alisha was the passenger.
A case for attempted murder was dismissed due to the lack of witness cooperation, records show.
“Sexual assault is an absolute part of it, the beatings, the torture,” Hughes said. “And when I talk about torture, I’m not talking about small things. They cut the girls. They whip the girls. They use chains. They use cords. They use irons. They use all kinds of different mechanisms to instill absolute fear so these girls don’t turn on them and so they don’t report the criminal activity.”
Ocean Fleming appears in court for sentencing, which was postponed, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012.
In another prominent case tried last year, court records describe gang member and pimp Ocean Fleming becoming irate over the loss of a prostitute, his “bottom girl” whom he had built “from the ground up,” to another pimp.
Fleming, according to court records, took out the loss of one of his higher-earning prostitutes on those who remained, abusing them more than ever.
Dodging detection and incarceration
Sharpe, according to court documents, used at least 22 aliases, six dates of birth and nine Social Security numbers during his criminal career.
Pandering and sex-trafficking cases are notoriously hard to prosecute, with victim cooperation the most challenging part, prosecutors said.
The women fear for their lives – and the lives of friends and family – if they testify against their pimp. Sentences for pandering can be light, and even those convicted will spend little time in a jail, a fact that does not escape prostitutes who have seen the worst of the violence.
In Nevada, pandering an adult with force is punishable by one to five years in prison; pandering without force is punishable by 18 to 48 months in jail. Bail amount is tied to the level of the felony, and pimps who are arrested on such charges can quickly come up with the $5,000 bond that accompanies a charge of pandering without force. That’s a relatively small amount equal to some prostitutes’ nightly take, prosecutors said.
In fact, Alisha, who had tried numerous times to get away from Sharpe during her 15 years under his control, was not cooperative in the trial in which Sharpe ultimately was found guilty and sentenced to 13 consecutive life terms, prosecutors said.
“The detectives do the best they can for victim maintenance,” said Noreen DeMonte, Clark County chief deputy district attorney. “Cutting off contact between the pimp and victim is crucial but difficult. If they are in jail, they’ll use other pimps to get to the witnesses. Pimps are so manipulative. They tell the prostitutes they love them and want to be with them. The victims feel guilty and are afraid of retaliation.”
Since 2009, Metro Police has fielded a pandering investigation team within its vice unit, one of the first of its kind in the country, Hughes said. Detectives on the team routinely spend a year or more gathering enough evidence and witnesses for a pandering case. Pimps frequently have set up in several cities and can be hard to track continuously. Victims usually come forward as witnesses only when they have reached their nadir.
“Right now there is a huge amount of energy just within our community to find safe houses and to find resources and services (for victims). That way when we do have a victim that we rescue from that life, we don’t have any questions about where we are going to take them and how we are going to be able to provide a healthy path for them to get back into regular society,” Hughes said. “I think communities across America are really wrangling with that right now.”
This year, the Nevada Legislature is expected to discuss changes to the state’s pandering laws, altering language, providing for civil suits against pimps by victims, toughening penalties and strengthening forfeiture provisions.
At Sharpe’s house the night of his arrest, July 2, 2011, Metro Police found numerous gutted cars and a cache of weapons including an AK-47 and an AR-15. When Alisha told Sharpe she had called police after being beaten, he responded that he would shoot her before they arrived. Metro did respond in time however, and their knock on the door distracted Sharpe long enough for Alisha to escape out the back.
Using habitual offender statutes, Clark County prosecutors last year were able to secure long sentences for both Fleming and Sharpe.
Sharpe was convicted by a jury of 13 counts related to running prostitutes, including first-degree kidnapping, pandering and living off the earnings of a prostitute. Prosecutors successfully argued that Sharpe should be sentenced as a habitual offender, and a district judge gave the pimp 13 life prison sentences.
Legalize prostitution and this problem goes away.
It is the oldest profession and it not going away.
Just like prohibition, once alcohol was made legal the gangster problem went away.
The more human activities that are "criminalized," the more avenues open for criminals. Prohibition was a great example of that and, I believe, "do-gooders" and "blue-noses" have learned little from it. The "War" on drugs is another prime example of governmental nonsense that does not work, wastes taxpayer resources and tackles problems that do not exist. My belief is, as long as those "doing" drugs commit no acts that harm another, let them be stupid and play with fire. Legalize drugs, tax them and use the money to pound away that no good can come from "recreational" drugs. That position has made a huge dent in the number of addicts who choose to light up "legal" poison - cigarettes. It seems NV only has a "problem" with prostitution in those counties where it is banned. Wake up! Legalize it throughout the state!
This is a good article and one that you can present every day of the news with a different case. Keep it up, and make it a regular. People need to know that those in their neighborhood, the girls that occupy the house that occasionally the pimp visits, or where they have cars registered in other states, claim they are "dancers' well, they are a bad element in the hood. This is a sad thing for anyone..and everyone.
This is a very good article. Thanks to State Senator John Hambrick, we have some of the toughest trafficking laws in the country. Prostitution in no joke, it involves kidnapping of even young children, drugs, sexual assault and a lot of abuse. Las Vegas needs to do so much more to close this industry down, starting with the removal of the pimps handing out "Girls direct to your room" cards on the strip. Duh, that is prostitution! I often wonder of legalizing prostitution would eliminate pimps?? The expert, Senator John Hambrick says no, I am not sure I agree with him...
If prostitution is legal down the road in Parhump, why no make it legal here? Let's eliminate the illegal factor of this so it can be gone of the seedy underbelly. Plus we can tax it!!!
It is offensive that in the gallery of images labeled "Sex Trafficking in Vegas", there is a photo of a woman supposedly walking out of an escort call center. Besides the fact that it is highly inappropriate to show her face and label her a prostitute, if she is truly a sex worker, she is obviously NOT being trafficked.
Adult consensual prostitution is not sex trafficking. Our local media tends to use sensationalism when reporting anything about the sex trade. In order to arouse readers' outrage, anecdotal horror stories are presented as typical of sex work. The vast majority of sex workers in Las Vegas are adults who chose sex work and engage in it without coercion.
Criminalization manufactures criminals.
Legalization, regulation, taxation.
If alcohol were illegal, there would be underground moonshiners. Alcohol is legal and we have no moonshine problems. People happily pay taxes when buying drinks.
If tobacco were illegal, we would have tobacco dealers just like pot dealers. Tobacco is legal & we have no dark alley cigarette deals. The tobacco tax is concurred with.
If prostitution were legal, STD tested, and licensed, pimps would have no purpose in Vegas. People would pay taxes.. a lot of taxes. Prostitution will always exist. It always has and always will. Why can't our lawmakers realize that they have an economic opportunity here. Want to get rid of the trafficking? = legalize prostitution.
- Written by a tax-paying, happily married man whose opinion is shared by his wife.
They always say "Pimpin Aint Easy"
many of these pimps and there ladies are now using backpage in las vegas look at it sometime you will notice the same phone number for like ten different ladies and also the same location to visit amazing how the lvpd doesnt look in to this i agree with other commenters here about the cards being handed out on the strip there is just to much going on for the police to catch it all with the ladies working the streets and the casinos and hotels plus the yellow pages for entertainers and the mobile billboards that go down the strip
This is old news. Pimps have been around forever. Movies have been made, specials have been on HBO about prostitution in Atlantic City.
Legalization does NOT eliminate pimps. Prostitution is usually NOT consensual. I'm not opposed to legal brothels but I am opposed to street walkers, hotel room "escorts", pimping 'em out..... Whenever the sex workers report back to a "manager" or "companion" they are used for the money they can make. And they are used and abused endlessly. We still mourn for the young girls kidnapped into prostitution in the 60's and 70's. More are kidnapped and otherwise forced into prostitution by strangers who ABDUCT THEM and con artists who promise them the American dream and transport them to our streets. The stereotypical pimp talks them into it--which is still force, intimidation.....to keep the game going whether for drugs, "love", whatever.
"Legalization does NOT eliminate pimps."
Nothing eliminates anything.
Legalization, regulation, taxation. This will solve the majority of all problems associated with sex work, from both sides.
There is a difference between regulation and prohibition. Given human nature, and a market for fulfilling "needs" and desires. Prohibition is doomed to failure, makes control and regulation more difficult, and assures that all profits will remain unreported and untaxed. History has shown that prostitution will persevere regardless of efforts to stamp it out. A regulated sex trade would be safer for all concerned.
Legal or not...most of these woman are thoroughly used and abused...not really what you are probably imagining.
The cops know who these guys are. Why can't the police use their power and lean on these guys until it is so uncomfortable for them that they leave town?
I am just a tourist when it comes to LV, but I see what goes on. Any cop just has to wander over to the corner where Bally's sits and you will see the pimps. Lean on 'em. Make 'em go away.
This article, and the people interviewed in it including Karen Hughes and Alexis Kennedy, fosters violence and stigma against some of our most vulnerable citizens. When you conflate sex work and trafficking, as the author and his informants do here, you ignore the the very real and pressing needs of trafficking victims--indeed, victims ruthlessly forced into ALL kinds of labor--as well as the specific need of consensual sex workers (and, FYI, I imagine flashing the photos of alleged victims of trafficking and consensual sex workers does little to benefit either).
As a member of this community for quite some time, I can longer stand to watch people in power flex their muscles and continue their corrupt moral crusades. Ms. Hughes, would you care to comment on the litany of reports I sent you, when I was a sex worker, explaining that your police officers were responsible for the many abuses I witnessed in strip clubs around town? Would you care to share with the community your response, in which you wrote something along the lines of, "This clearly isn't happening, as it is against our code of ethics." When I requested you and I work together to come up with solutions to the woeful problem of violence in my community (which, again, flourishes in environments where we are stigmatized and dehumanized), you blatantly stated that you had no interest in working with strippers or sex worker organizations like the Sex Worker Outreach Project. (As an aside, if you're a journalist interested in journalism outside of the yellow kind, I would humbly encourage you to get the voices of people actively working on alternatives to incarcerating trafficking victims and consensual sex workers... perhaps voices from the local non-profit, SWOP.)
No one with an ounce of compassion doubts that Alisha's story happens and happens much too frequently (if ONE person is trafficked, it's too many... clearly). My hope in posting this is that as a community we start to have open and honest discussions about trafficking and sex work. Why, for example, are moral crusaders like Hughes and Kennedy so reluctant to speak to consensual sex workers like myself? Why, if we are so haunted by stories like Alisha's, are we not doing everything humanly possible to eradicate human rights abuses, including the many abuses incurred at the hands of the very people who propose to serve and protect us? No amount of harsher criminalization or policing consensual sexual behavior --which the new Nevada Sex Trafficking legislation proposes-- is going to right the wrongs of forced labor, violence, or stigma.
Make pandering with force a life sentence without possibility of parone on the first offense. This will solve a lot of the problems.
Legalizing prostitution in Amsterdam was not really a success
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8835...
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
@jennyheineman , true she does seem to be far from unbiased. Although I could see that some points may be valid about how there still being continued forced labor or underground trade to avoid taxes or just get really seedy. No way to get rid of all exploitation and I worry that a misstep could make it worse.
More laws, more jails, more money, more people in the jail, more people in the system, more people making money on the system, and mores taxes to pay for the war on whatever, drugs, prostitution, guns, sodas, fat, obesity etc.
If you want to manipulate people throw in the "for the children angle" like the gun-grabber crap now. Or the "crack babies" hysteria, which was overblown. Same thing with hookers, a lot of people do not care so ramp up the "child prostitution" crapolla.
The "trafficking" hysteria that is being pushed now. Good for some more money and some overpriced cops getting their jollies by playing "Johns."
I used to teach school in Oakland back in the 70's and a number of the Black "boys and girls" would tell me how they were going to become prostitutes and pimps and live the good life.
Some of this garbage being pushed by the media and the politicians right now stems from a sexist view of women and girls. You see, a man can want to have sex with multiple partners, (take your pick: Clinton, Ensign, for example) but a woman could not want to have sex with many different men and enjoy it, SHE MUST be being FORCED! Of course we have people like Clint Eastwood's daughter talking about how she had sex at 14 and was "ready for it..."
Also some of the "trafficked woman" want to make more money as hookers here than over there. Also, if they get "caught" then they can say they were "being trafficked" and get a "t or U" visa, and a green card and ultimately citizenship.
A reporter should call over to NYE County and ask the DA there how many prostitution and pimping cases they have a year?
This whole thing is part of Gillespie's taxpayer shakedown routine. We are tired of paying for this crap. Left, Right and Center, let alone the libertarians. Also, the casinos want the pimps and hookers (as long as they do not shoot up the place.) I was at one place were the dealer was telling a guy how "there will be all sorts of girls here tonight and it will be easy to get laid" Give me a break, did the Rat Pack use hookers? and I bet Frank's mommy took care of some of the girls if they "got into trouble."
so why is it legal for trucks to cruise the strip with near naked women pictured advertising "hot babes to your room"? they are advertising prostitution. or the card slappers. aren't they advertising prostitution? if prostitution is illegal in this city, shouldn't the advertising of it also be illegal? if it looks like a duck, it probably is a duck.
I'm not a fan of the Sun's reporting on this issue. To me, this reads like an almost identical story, with the exact same themes, as this one - only with a different headline attached.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/nov...
Even the same people are sourced, with no comments from academics and activists who might challenge the dominant narrative about the supposedly widespread problem of prostitution and trafficking in Las Vegas or who might offer an alternative, and perhaps more complicated, perspective on matters.
Maybe the story was updated with the obligatory reference to an "AK-47 and AR15" Of course I read no reference to a 30 year firearms enhancement for procession of an unlicensed machine gun violating the NFA of 1934, so the weapons found was NOT AK-47, but a semi-automatic sporting rifles. What they found might be described as an AK-47 "derivatives or variants", not the full auto version. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-47 An AR would be a Colt branded weapon.
Keep in mind we will pay for the medical care for the guy serving hi 13 life sentences, along with 3 hots and a cot.
Like the 3 strikes your out laws or the Rockefeller drug laws, these "zero tolerance" laws are pushed by the prison and police-prosecutor industries. What does a DA in Clark Co make, $115k plus benefits. Then all the big money related to prisons there construction and operation and the cops who often make $200k and up.
We are being duped, and the evidence its clear. While Lt. Karen Hughes, who oversees Metro's vice section has insisted for more than two years that she "...considers Las Vegas ground zero for sex trafficking," she has never bothered to tell Robin Thompson, senior program director for Florida State University's Center for Advancement of Human Rights. She claims,
"Florida is "ground zero" for human trafficking, says " (http://bit.ly/15IhTW3)
But then neither of them seem to know that Kendra Lee, a professor of public relations at Southern Adventist University insists ...Atlanta IS "GROUND ZERO" for sex trafficking (http://bit.ly/ZBprIl)+
There are officials in Seattle, Detroit, Tampa, Denver, Omaha and Union City, NJ just to name a few that each have their own Hughes trying to scare their neighbors by telling them their community is "'ground zero' for child sex trafficking."
"Houston is hub of human trafficking"
The Houston Chronicle, 11/26/2008
"Oklahoma's position ["] makes it a hub for traffickers"
The Oklahoman, 04/15/2011
"Portland a center for human trafficking"
The Oregonian, 01/09/2011
"Las Vegas: 'Hub' of Human Trafficking"
Las Vegas Tribune, 04/10/2011
"California ["] is a hub for both international and domestic traffickers"
Oakland Tribune, 01/09/2011
"Toledo's reputation as a hub for enslavement of people for the sex trade"
The Blade (OH), 01/04/2009
"Chicago is a major 'hub' for human trafficking"
The Chicago Sun-Times, 04/23/2006
"Atlanta is the east coast hub for human trafficking"
WALB News (GA), 03/30/2011
"North Carolina's location makes it an increasingly attractive regional hub for human trafficking"
Gaston Gazette (NC), 04/08/2011
"The city [San Francisco] is a major hub on the global trafficking network"
San Francisco Chronicle, 03/09/2007
@lwonder..."advertising "hot babes to your
room"? they are advertising prostitution. or the card slappers. aren't they advertising prostitution?"
No they are advertising an outcall entertainment service that features live, nude dancing. No more than that is either expressed or implied on those rolling billboards. Do some of those dancers, offer prostitution? Of course, but that service isn't advertised.
Good data on this national fraud. "We are the capital of SEX trafficking" I bet there is some lobby group behind this fraud. I bet they are fundraising off this media frenzy. This is just like the other hysterical garbage that stacked people like cord wood in the Nation's prisons. We had 100 people per 100,000 in prison till the 70s. Then "Crack babies" Rockefeller drug laws, just say NO, 3 strikes your out and a bunch of Charles Bronson movies to flack the "crisis." evidence suggests that the "crack babies" stuff was exaggerated. Fetal alcohol syndrome was more of a problem. Now we have 700 people per 100,000 in prison. Are we safer? Of course not. They took the low level "stupid criminals" off the street, if even that. No medical or scientific basis for crack baby, but millions of people were sent to jail over the "coke drug."
(They used to put it in Coca Cola by the way.) http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org...
Looks like The state of Nevada got suckered on this deal. (One columnist had the guts to stand up to the hysteria.) Shows that the PR people out at Metro and in the prison industry lobby know how to manipulate the media and the public. If you no longer want to make money as a hooker, then get a job as a professional victim, probably pays just as good.
Another fraud is the "missing children racket that is pushed by similar phony advocates and groups. The stranger abductions where a kid is taken and transported more than 50 miles amounts to 115 children a year in the USA. Yet we hear 800,000 children are reported missing each year. This ties into this "trafficking" lie that the cops are pushing to keep their pensions and salaries up and add to their squandering of taxpayer dollars. look at this article from Slate:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_p...
I wonder what loose definition of trafficking is applied in a similar fashion.