12/11/2013 – Tulsa, OK — A Tulsa woman has pleaded guilty in federal court to a racketeering charge in relation to her role as a pimp – for unknown reasons she avoided conviction of a more serious charge of child sex-trafficking.
JohnTV previously reported on the Sept. arrest of Alyssa Catherine White by members of the Tulsa Police Department’s Vice Unit and agents with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (Human Trafficking Division).
According to court records, White placed prostitution ads on Backpage.com and negotiated commercial sex acts for a 15-year old girl and herself.
White was arrested after undercover officers made contact with both the juvenile and White during separate stings on the same night.
Undercover officers, responding to an ad placed for the juvenile on Backpage, were directed to a residence in the 3200 block of South 127th East Ave. in Tulsa.
Once there, a female in the home agreed to engage in specific sexual acts in exchange for $100.
It wasn’t until she was taken into custody that it was revealed the girl was only 15-years old. It was later learned that the home was the residence of White and her boyfriend.
The young trafficking victim told investigators that White had placed the prostitution ad online for her and directed her in her prostitution efforts.
At the same time, additional undercover officers made contact with White at the America’s Best Value Inn near 31st Street and Memorial.
White was taken into custody after she agreed to engage in specific sexual acts in exchange for money.
White was originally charged in Tulsa County with pimping a minor and engaging in prostitution. Those charges were dropped Oct. 17, so that federal charges of child sex-trafficking and racketeering could be pursued.
Yesterday the federal case against White came to an end – though JohnTV argues justice was not served.
White agreed to plead guilty to the racketeering charge, and in exchange federal prosecutors agreed to drop the child sex-trafficking charge.
In her plea, White agreed that she did indeed engage in prostitution by use of telephone and the Internet “with the intent to promote, manage, establish, carry on, and facilitate the promotion, management, establishment and carrying on of a prostitution business.”
White also implicated her boyfriend, Eric Whitaker, by stating he resided with her, was aware of her prostitution business and actively provided assistance in its furtherance.
White told the court that she and Whitaker split the profits she made and that she “did not think of Eric as [her] ‘pimp’ because he was [her] boyfriend at the time and [she] loved him.”
As of this publication, Whitaker has yet to be criminally charged.
White is currently free on bond and not set to be sentenced until Feb. 20, of next year.
Because the child sex trafficking charge was dropped, White only faces a maximum of five years in prison – proving once again, that despite the diligent work of investigators and police – our elected officials and prosecutors, DO NOT take the sexual trafficking of our children seriously.