News Releases
THREE INDICTED IN FORCED PROSTITUTION SCHEME
October 18, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sally Yates, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia; Bradley Schlozman, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice; and Gregory Jones, Special Agent In Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announce that a federal grand jury has returned a 9-count indictment against HARRISON NORRIS, JR., 39, of Cartersville, Georgia, AIMEE ALLEN, 33, of Cartersville, Georgia, and CEDRIC LAMAR JACKSON, 39, of Chamblee, Georgia, charging all three defendants with conspiracy to hold young women to a condition of peonage, to obtain the forced labor and services of young women, to traffic young women for purposes of forced labor and peonage, and to traffic young women for commercial sex acts. Defendants NORRIS and ALLEN are also charged with substantive counts of peonage, forced labor, trafficking for purposes of labor and peonage, and trafficking young women for commercial sex acts.
According to Yates, the indictment, which was unsealed Monday afternoon, charges that from April 2004, through August 2005, the defendants conspired to use force, fraud, and intimidation to recruit women to work as prostitutes in the Northern District of Georgia. Specifically, the indictment charges that the co-conspirators would recruit young women through physical force, by paying legal fines or bail for them, and by using false pretenses, frequently offering to train them as wrestlers. According to the indictment, once the defendants lured women into their service, they used physical violence, sexual abuse, threats of force, sleep and food deprivation, constant monitoring, and an elaborate debt system to keep the women working involuntarily as prostitutes. The conspirators would also confiscate the women’s mobile phones and identification documents. Consequently, the women believed that they would suffer serious consequences if they tried to leave the defendants. There are at least 8 victims identified in the indictment, all identified solely by their initials.
Yates, Schlozman, and the FBI noted that this case remains part of an ongoing investigation. Yates stated, “This office will pursue any and all individuals who traffic in human beings or hold individuals against their will through violence, deceit or coercion. This modern day form of slavery will not be tolerated.”
On October 17, 2005, JACKSON made his initial appearance, and NORRIS and ALLEN are scheduled for initial appearances today. The case was assigned to United States District Judge Jack T. Camp. A trial date has not yet been set.
Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government's burden to prove a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
The case is being investigated by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If anyone has any further information related to this case or other trafficking cases please call the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 404-679-9000.
Assistant United States Attorneys Susan P. Coppedge and Joseph Plummer and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Amy E. Pope are prosecuting the case.
For further information please contact Sally Yates, Acting United States Attorney or F. Gentry Shelnutt, Chief, Criminal Division, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.