A Richmond man sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in state prison on Friday for sex trafficking two female minors had impregnated one of his victims and forced her back into prostitution within weeks of her giving birth to his child, according to new details released by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
Corell Olajuwon Hackett, 21, of Richmond was convicted for human trafficking that occurred between 2016 and 2018, and received concurrent convictions for other cases, including robbery and a hit-and-run crash last year in San Pablo.
The DA’s office credited the Richmond Police Department Bravo Team’s ongoing efforts to crack down on prostitution on 23rd Street for the arrest and conviction, and also credited the and Richmond PD Family Violence Detectives Bureau.
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In 2016, one of Hackett’s victims, then 17 years old, told a Richmond police detective working out of the Family Justice Center about how Hackett forced her to go to San Francisco to work as a prostitute on five separate occasions only weeks after she gave birth to his child. She gave him all the money she earned, and soon after Hackett began a relationship with another 17-year-old girl. He put that victim “on the ‘blade’ in Richmond, the area around 23rd Street known for street prostitution.
In the fall of 2018, Hackett was arrested for a domestic violence incident against one of the girls. Investigators later learned he was using the jail phone, which records calls, to continue to communicate with his victim in violation of a court order.
“In more than 100 separate phone calls between November 2018 and February 2019, Hackett used threats, coercion, menace and manipulation of [the victim’s] love for him to keep the 18-year-old prostituting so that she could put money on his jail account,” prosecutors said.
In addition to his prison sentence, Hackett was barred from having contact with any of the victims for a period of 10 years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
“The fact that an exploiter is also in a dating or intimate relationship with the victim is no defense to human trafficking,” Deputy District Attorney Dana Filkowski said. “In fact, love and affection are often tools of manipulation and control used to keep the victim engaged in prostitution to benefit the trafficker and deter the victim from cooperating with law enforcement.”
The DA’s Office urges anyone being pressured to engage in prostitution to benefit or help support another person to contact Community Violence Solutions at 800-670-7273 to speak to a confidential counselor. Or visit the Contra Costa Family Justice Centers in Richmond or Concord to talk to a Navigator about a variety of services and support available right here in Contra Costa County.
To learn more about human trafficking in Contra Costa County, contact the Contra Costa Human Trafficking Coalition at www.contracostacoalition.org.
