United States v. Willoughby, No. 12-3822 (6th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseA 16-year-old girl (SW) ran away from her foster home with only her purse. A friend introduced her to Willoughby, 34-year-old, 360-pound a crack dealer and Toledo pimp. Willoughby told SW that she could live with him and his eight-year-old daughter. SW had no money or driver’s license. Willoughby began having sex with SW. SW felt that she had no choice but to comply with his request that she engage in prostitution, because she was “scared of him.” He instructed her, provided her with various sex trade items, and drove her to customers’ houses, waiting outside. When SW returned to Willoughby’s car, he took the money. Willoughby also took SW to a notorious prostitution “track,” and left her alone, with instructions to “walk” for johns. Willoughby began beating SW. To convince Willoughby to let her leave, SW bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, and made herself vomit, “[t]o make him think I was throwing up blood, I was sick.” Willoughby returned SW to her foster home. SW’s foster parents called the police. The next day, officers obtained a search warrant for Willoughby’s home, where they found evidence of SW’s prostitution. Convicted of sex trafficking a minor through force, fraud, or coercion (18 U.S.C. 1591(a), (b)), Willoughby was sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting challenges to evidentiary rulings.
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