On April 10, 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced that Aryeh Goodman, Richard Ortiz, and Gabriella Colon, were facing federal charges for sex trafficking of a child. Ortiz and Colon are also charged with one count of transporting a minor in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution. These three individuals were initially charged under New Jersey state law for prostitution and sex trafficking offenses.
We first covered this story when news broke that Mr. Goodman, a New Jersey Rabbi, stood accused of soliciting sex from a 17-year-old from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Ortiz and Colon are accused of forcing the 17-year-old victim to engage in commercial sex acts with multiple individuals in different hotels throughout New Jersey, using online advertisements to solicit buyers. According to the complaint, Mr. Goodman allegedly responded to an advertisement posted by Ortiz and Colon on Backpage.com, and had sex with the 17-year-old victim. After engaging in sex with the 17-year-old victim, Mr. Goodman allegedly spent an additional thirty minutes with the victim, where he asked the victim to meet him in New York City at a later date.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a “sex trafficking charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum term of life imprisonment.” The charge also carries a potential fine of $250,000. Under federal law, force, fraud, and coercion do not need to be proven in order to garner a conviction if the victim in the case is under 18 years old. An individual commits the crime of sex trafficking if he recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, advertised, maintained, patronized, or solicited by any other means an individual who was not 18 years of age and that person will be caused to engage in a commercial sexual act. Mr. Goodman is charged with knowingly soliciting, enticing, and patronizing the 17-year-old victim, knowing, and in reckless disregard that the victim was not 18 years old and that the victim would be caused to engage in a commercial sex act.
The CSE Institute applauds the special agents of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey for continuing to investigate the allegations of sex trafficking by Goodman, Ortiz, and Colon. The CSE Institute is especially pleased that prosecutors are moving forward with federal trafficking charges against Goodman. Using this law to hold Mr. Goodman accountable for his actions is especially important given his role as a religious figure in the community, and his history as a convicted sex offender.
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.