Category: Uncategorized

Jamal Rashid AKA Mally Mall, the central sex trafficker in Vegas Concierge, was in federal custody this week after the U.S. Probation Office accused him of harassing one of his victims, Angela Williams, the core protagonist of the book.

Rashid now faces up to two more years in prison. He was sentenced to two years and nine months for owning and operating a prostitution ring disguised as escort services but only served two years.

After his release in July 2023, he harassed Williams over the phone, starting in March of this year, according to a warrant signed by Judge Gloria M. Navarro, who originally sentenced Rashid.

Williams, an outspoken critic of Rashid, declined to comment, saying she didn’t want to interfere with the justice system’s process.

According to the warrant, issued on Oct. 27, Rashid is accused of several probation violations:

• both failing a drug test and failing to submit to drug testing;
• failing to show a probation officer a hidden “sex room” in his Las Vegas mansion and lying to probation about a third phone he had, claiming it was his girlfriend’s, who he couldn’t name;
• speaking on the phone with Ocean Fleming, a convicted felon and another pimp described in Vegas Concierge; and
• communicating with and recording without her knowledge one of his victims, identified as A.W., including trying to convince her to drop a lawsuit she has against him, which is also highlighted in Vegas Concierge.

The warrant documents at least five phone calls between Rashid and Williams, one each on March 13 and March 20, two on March 25, and one on or about April 3, with Fleming on one of them.

“Mr. Rashid’s conduct regarding his contact with the victim in his instant offense is very concerning,” wrote Senior U.S. Probation Officer Bryce Stark in a summary in support of the warrant. “His statement to her demanding that she also dismiss him from the civil case he is a defendant in is apparent tampering of her as a witness and a victim. Mr. Rashid makes statements in the calls, which he recorded unlawfully, that he has used Ocean Fleming as his ‘muscle’ in past events with people while discussing the civil case dismissal with the victim and throughout other conversations.”

Details in the warrant confirm A.W. is in fact Williams because it cites the case number for her lawsuit against Rashid.

The warrant states that Rashid’s phones were reviewed by authorities and in addition to “content related to illicit drugs, including mushrooms (psilocybin) and marijuana” they were found to contain “instances where he is engaging in conversations with females discussing money and other women to be considered,” which suggests he may still be pimping, a suggestion also explored in Vegas Concierge.

The book tells the inside story of Rashid’s sex trafficking operation, using it as a narrative vehicle to explore how American society disregards sex trafficking victims and survivors. It shows how Rashid leveraged his status as a criminal informant to avoid harsher penalties and bought his way to hip hop stardom on the backs of victims like Williams.

Rashid was taken into federal custody on Oct. 28. At a detention hearing on Oct. 30, federal Magistrate Judge Elayna J. Youchah released Rashid on home detention until a Nov. 17 hearing when Navarro will consider revoking his probation.

Speaking as the author of Vegas Concierge, it’s not surprising to see a sex trafficker accused of reoffending. Pimps are notoriously recalcitrant and belligerent. When the authorities go easy on them, it’s not only a slap in the face of survivors, but it also could endanger our communities as well, a concern Youchah struggled with in Rashid’s detention hearing.

Click here to read the warrant for Rashid’s arrest.

On the final night of its two-year session, the California legislature on August 31 sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill to increase penalties against johns who solicit minors for sex.

The bill, SB 1414, was authored by Bakersfield Republican State Senator Shannon Grove, a supporter of Vegas Concierge and an anti-trafficking advocate. Currently in California, the purchase of sex from a child is a misdemeanor. Grove’s bill would make it a felony to purchase a child 15 or younger for sex.

“Today, the California State Legislature reaffirmed its commitment to end the sex trafficking of children by passing my bill, SB 1414,” Grove said in a statement. “By increasing penalties for those who solicit or purchase children for sex, we are sending a clear message – California’s children are no longer for sale. While I am disappointed in the forced amendments that excluded some minors, I am pleased with this step forward. We know there is still work to be done and I will continue to fight to protect ALL children.

“I am incredibly thankful for the coalition of survivors, advocates and organizations that have stood strong and shared their testimony in order to pass this measure. Together we have made historic changes in the laws surrounding human trafficking, from pulling back the curtain on the dark underworld of one of the most lucrative crimes in the world, to fighting relentlessly to protect California’s children from those who wish to exploit them. The signing of this measure will mark another historic step to ending human trafficking in the state of California.”

Among the anti-trafficking groups to support Grove’s bill was Exodus Cry, which made two of the documentaries that the central figure of Vegas Concierge appeared in – Buying Her, and High Class. Newsom has until September 30 to sign SB 1414, one day before the official release date of Vegas Concierge.

Earlier this year, in recognition of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, held annually in January, I wrote a series of articles about sex trafficking for Capitol Weekly, a California publication for which I freelance. The stories are a little dated now, but they still offer some insights into how sex trafficking is being addressed at the policy level in the Golden State.

Below are links to each story, as well as a link here to an interview I did with Capitol Weekly’s podcast about the series.

• “From the streets to the statehouse, sex trafficking defies simple solutions” looked at the political fervor last year over Grove’s SB 14, which added child sex trafficking to the list of crimes that can put offenders away for life when they commit them and other serious offenses three times. This story also chronicled how the senator became engaged in the issue of sex trafficking.
• “Sex Trafficking: an NBA G Leaguer’s arrest provides glimpse into an evil subculture” examined the recent arrest of a Sacramento Kings G League player for murder and the case’s connections to the pimp-prostitute subculture.
• In “Competing values at play in addressing sex trafficking,” I and Capitol Weekly’s editor, my good friend Rich Ehisen, explored the conflicting attitudes and social mores at play when policymakers consider proposals to address sex trafficking.

January is still several months away, but the Vegas Concierge team is already planning at least one event to recognize National Human Trafficking Prevention Month in 2025. Stay tuned.

 

Many professionals may come in to contact with sex trafficking victims and survivors, including law enforcement officers, lawyers and legal aides, journalists, and health care providers.

Whenever possible, professionals in these and other fields should seek out specific, trauma-informed training for working with this unique population, particularly if they expect to regularly encounter sex trafficking victims and survivors, or defer to professionals who have such expertise. Working with sex trafficking victims and survivors is not a time to try to be a hero. You do not want your interactions with them to re-victimize them or put you or them in any sort of danger.

The following tips should in no way be construed as sufficient to replace trauma-informed training, which is the gold standard for learning the proper ways to interact with traumatized individuals.

Be patient. As a result of the tremendous trauma they have endured, sex trafficking victims and survivors may be hypervigilant, easily triggered, and/or moody. This can result in them adopting personal coping skills that may make them appear flakey or volatile or passive-aggressive.

Do not take these behaviors personally and do not negatively react to them.  Sex trafficking victims and survivors frequently have turbulent inner worlds; their behavior is often a reflection of their emotional pain and deep-seated wounds, not necessarily disrespect or disinterest. Ghosting by a sex trafficking victim should not be taken as an insult, but rather an opportunity to practice empathy. More often than not, sex trafficking victims and survivors want to work or cooperate with you, but they’re emotionally overwhelmed and unable to comply at the moment.

Give them time and space. If possible, create schedules with latitude to allow for victims and survivors to have bad days. Do not hold those bad days against them.

Be consistent. Structure and routine are important salves for sufferers of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress, a common affliction of anyone who has experienced even one traumatic event, let alone years’ worth. Life in the pimp-prostitute subculture is often chaotic and scary. Sex trafficking survivors, even those who have been out of The Life for many years, struggle to know who they can trust.

You can help build trust by always keeping your promises to a sex trafficking survivor. If you say you are going to call at a particular time on a particular day, do it, no matter what. It doesn’t matter if the survivor fails to answer – again, you need to be patient with their ups and downs. What matters is that you show them that you keep your word.

Be available. Since sex trafficking victims and survivors often experience ups and downs, it’s important that you be available for them when they are feeling comfortable. That may mean taking phone calls at odd hours or having to re-arrange your schedule at the last minute to accommodate them.

Stay calm. It’s natural when someone is irritable to be irritable back. But you shouldn’t do that with sex trafficking victims. Once again, patience is critical when working with them. If they become angry with you, do not escalate. Try to understand what is driving their behavior and work to soothe the situation.

Do not rush them. Many sex trafficking victims and survivors suffer from some form of anxiety, and nobody with anxiety likes to be under pressure. Therefore, you don’t want to do anything that could be construed as pressuring a sexually exploited individual, either explicitly or implicitly. When asking questions, do so in a calm, measured tone. Do not cut them off when they answer. Move deliberately; avoid tapping your feet or nervously fidgeting.

Welcome to VegasConciegeBook.com’s blog, where we’ll be publishing supplemental information about the issues raised in Vegas Concierge as well as offering additional resources to victims, survivors, and others interested in combating sex trafficking in America.

I don’t know how often we’ll be posting here, but when we do, we’re going to try to make sure the material is substantive, or at the very least helpful.

For our first post, we thought we’d address a practical concern that many survivors face after they exit The Life: their credit history.

A survivor’s journey can include many steps including healing from physical wounds or psychological trauma, expunging a criminal record or even just re-learning how to shop for your own clothing. In telling their stories, survivors often talk about these crucial milestones.

What typically doesn’t get discussed at galas or in interviews is the tedious work many survivors have to do in order to clean up their credit histories, which can be severely damaged when pimps open bank accounts or take out loans in their names.

This is no small matter as adverse credit reports can sometimes block survivors from securing permanent housing or landing stable employment.

Angela, the central figure of Vegas Concierge, recently went through the process of repairing her credit history. She relied on a guide published by the Coalition to Abolition Slavery & Trafficking about the Debt Bondage Repair Act, which allows sex trafficking survivors to remove negative information tied to their trafficking ordeals from credit reports.

The guide is quite thorough, offering step-by-step instructions for survivors to fix their credit histories. Any survivor looking to address problems with their credit reports should refer to the guide itself, but we’ll offer a brief summary here of the steps they’ll have to take.

Step 1: Survivors should obtain credit reports on themselves from the three main credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, to see what information they contain. Survivors can request reports through AnnualCreditReport.com.

Step 2: Once the reports are pulled, survivors should review them for inaccuracies or damaging information that stems from their trafficking experiences.

Step 3: If inaccurate or damaging information is found, survivors can submit a letter to each credit bureau asking that the adverse data be blocked from their credit reports. As the CAST guide indicates, each bureau asks for something a little different, but generally the letters must identify every item that needs to be removed from the reports as well as the survivor’s preferred contact method.

Crucially, survivors also must submit with their letters documentation proving their status as a sex trafficking survivor. This “Victim Determination Documentation” can take many different forms, including a T Visa approval, HHS certification letter, a court order to expunge a criminal record, documentation from a non-governmental agency like Freedom Network USA or a signed statement from the survivor attesting to their circumstances.

This summary may make it sound like the process is simple or even quick, but if you review the CAST guide, it’s actually quite complex and time consuming. Each bureau has its own process for submitting claims through their websites or the mail and the documentation needs can be fairly onerous, especially for someone who has just escaped The Life. In the end, it can amount to quite a lot of tiresome paperwork.

But as Angela will tell you, it’s absolutely worth it for survivors to go to the effort.