On September 28, 2016, a federal judge sentenced Samuel “Dre” Verrier of Philadelphia to eight years in prison for sex trafficking a 15-year-old girl during a two-week period in August 2011. He was also sentenced to a lifetime term of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution to the victim.
During the two-week trafficking period, Verrier took the victim to Philadelphia bars and strip clubs, where he ordered her to have sex with patrons for money. He also supplied the victim with drugs and alcohol.
The victim was picked up in Haverstraw, New York by Wilbur “Wilby” Senat, of Haverstraw, when Senat threatened to hurt her family if she did not leave with him. The two traveled on a commercial bus to Philadelphia, where the girl was trafficked by Verrier and forced to live in an “uninhabitable” basement. She was also chained to a metal pipe and physically abused during the two-week period.
Verrier’s arrest occurred on September 1, 2011, when he drove the girl to Bordentown, New Jersey and ordered her to participate in an extortion scheme where she was to “approach a man in a parking lot, seduce him, take pictures of the sexual encounter, and provide those pictures to Verrier . . . who would use the pictures to blackmail the man.” A witness called the police after the man declined the victim’s advances.
In 2014, Verrier pled guilty to one count of procuring interstate travel of a person to engage in illicit sexual conduct for the purpose of financial gain. This was not the first run-in with the law for Verrier, who was previously convicted of and served time for possession of a prohibited firearm and criminal conspiracy to engage in robbery.
The CSE Institute applauds the efforts of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey to ensure that traffickers are properly prosecuted and appropriately sentenced.