A runaway child was targeted and exploited by a group of sex traffickers in Philadelphia late last month. According to a news report, on April 25, the victim, a 14-year-old girl, managed to get herself to Temple University Hospital where she courageously informed staff she was just sexually abused for days by multiple men.
The alleged exploiters include Shaikey Copper (18), Reggie Jamal Fields (23), Fantasia Gale (21), and Shawn Jackson (23), who were all arrested and charged in connection with this case. Authorities are still looking for another alleged exploiter involved named Angelo Romero (24).
According to a media report, the victim told detectives she ran away from home on April 23 and met up with Copper, a person she considered a friend. Copper allegedly told the victim he could provide her with work, and took her back to his house in the 4200 block of North 8th street where she was sexually assaulted. Then Copper allegedly transported the victim to a home on the 1800 block of North 20th Street where co-defendant Fields resides. According to police, co-defendant Gale, who was also present in Fields’s home at the time, posted an online advertisement promoting the sale of the young girl for sex in exchange for money.
Through their investigation, police learned the sexual assault continued over the course of two days in multiple locations. Detectives say the victim was eventually able to escape by claiming she was going to buy something from a nearby bodega. Thankfully, a kind citizen at the bodega gave the girl a bus token, and she rode the bus directly to the hospital.
According to authorities, the alleged assailants were each aware that the victim was underage. Accordingly, they have all been charged with crimes related to crimes against a minor, such as corruption of a minor, statutory rape, and unlawful contact with a minor. However, to date, the dockets (linked above) indicate that none of the named defendants have been charged with sex trafficking of a minor – a felony in the first degree.
In this case, based on the alleged facts reported by the media, the CSE Institute believes this is a clear-cut case of a child sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking charges are warranted against some, if not all, of the defendants. This is In Pennsylvania, a person commits the crime of trafficking a minor if he or she “recruits, entices, solicits, harbors, transports, provides, obtains or maintains” another person knowing that the child victim will be subject to involuntary servitude. Furthermore, to convict of this charge, the prosecutor does not need to provide evidence of force, fraud, or coercion- only that the above acts occurred for the purpose of sexual servitude.
Here, according to police, the defendants undertook several acts that meet the statutory definition of trafficking; in particular, Copper allegedly recruited the victim for commercial sex purposes, any and all of the defendants arguably harbored the victim in various homes, Copper and possibly others transported the victim, provided her to rapists and buyers, Jackson allegedly obtained the victim and sexually assaulted her himself, and any and all of the defendants maintained the victim in this violent state of involuntary servitude for two days.
The CSE Institute encourages the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to consider charging sex trafficking of a minor in this case, and we applaud the victim for the bravery and resilience she has already shown. If anyone was information related to the wanted individual, please contact the Philadelphia Police by dialing 311 for non-emergency.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.