A 69-year-old man was either entrapped or actually trying to pay for sex with an 18-year-old, but he’s not the one facing charges, as the alleged sex worker and pimp are accused of robbing him, beating him up, and pepper-spraying him.
The Bay Area News Group brings us the story of a 69-year-old man who was beaten up, robbed, and pepper-sprayed by an alleged 18-year-old sex worker and the man she says is her 31-year-old pimp, Nicholas Lewis. The two are facing charges of robbery and elder abuse, while the 18-year-old Janiya Brown Lee has an additional felony charge for allegedly pepper-spraying the victim.
But that 69-year-old victim, who is not named in court documents, claims he wasn’t even trying to pay for sex, and the two entrapped him, with Brown Lee claiming she needed help in some sort of “emergency.”
That victim says that Brown Lee "flagged [him] down" and asked for a ride to the Travel Inn hotel in Oakland, where the alleged attack took place. He said under oath that Brown Lee then propositioned him for sex, and started grabbing at his belt buckle, though he claims he resisted, saying “I’m a married man.”
"She tried to give me some [oral sex], and I told her, ‘No,’" he testified on the stand. "And then she went and knocked on the door. And the guy came in. And that’s when I started getting beat up."
There seems little question that the alleged pimp Lewis has been involved with pimping in the past. The News Group described him as “well known to vice investigators in Oakland.” He was already under investigation for multiple other charges of pimping and pandering, and was convicted of such in Orange County in 2020.
Additionally, prosecutors showed texts from him to Brown Lee saying, "I always have hella [sex workers] I’m not these lil boys (sic)," and that "I’m a real pimp you can quit with all that."
And Brown Lee’s attorney appears to have turned against him, arguing he was forcing the 18-year-old to get “caught up in a lifestyle she doesn’t want to continue.”
"This is a situation where I think she was being somewhat manipulated into doing what she was doing at the time of this incident," her lawyer told the court. "She’s young, she’s impressionable."
Brown Lee was released from jail pending trial, and Lewis is put an a reported $75,000 bail. The two were charged in February, and the court information above comes for their March 28 preliminary hearing. A trial date has not yet been set.
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