A Richmond man pleaded guilty to pimping last week and agreed to accept a sentence of three years in state prison in connection with an investigation that followed an arrest last year on 23rd Street, according to the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office.
Joseph Walker will be formally sentenced later this month.
Walker was arrested on Nov. 8, 2018 when the Richmond Police Department’s Bravo Team was conducting a human trafficking operation on 23rd Street as part of an ongoing crackdown on the crime.
That night, undercover detectives cited and released a female human trafficking victim for soliciting a “john” for purposes of prostitution, police said. Officers continued their surveillance of her, watching as she approached another woman who appeared to be engaged in the same activity. She used that woman’s cell phone to make a call, prosecutors said.
Eventually the two were picked up by Walker, who was then detained by police. Police obtained a search warrant to forensically analyze Walker’s cell phone.
“The results of this analysis showed that Walker had been encouraging and assisting the victim to prostitute on the street and in hotels, promising to help her buy a car,” according to the DA’s office. “In a text to another person, Walker stated ‘…pimpin is how im making my money…’ Walker later admitted to benefiting from the proceeds of the victim’s prostitution activities.”
As part of his sentence, Walker will be prevented from having contact with the victim for a period of 10 years, and he will also forfeit the $1,084 seized from him during his arrest. Those funds will be used o pay a fine into the California State Victim-Witness Assistance Fund to fund child sexual exploitation and child abuse victim counseling centers and prevention programs.
To learn more about human trafficking in Contra Costa County, visit the Contra Costa Human Trafficking Coalition’s webpage at www.contracostacoalition.org
