Metairie, Louisiana Man, Torrey Ledell Davis, Charged With Sex Trafficking Of A Minor By Into The New Orleans Area

TORREY LEDELL DAVIS, age 42, most recently from Metairie, Louisiana was charged today in a three-count Indictment for offenses related to his involvement in the sex trafficking of a minor from the Jackson, Mississippi-area into the New Orleans area for the purposes of that minor engaging in prostitution, announced United States Attorney Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr..

According to the Indictment, in November 2012 DAVIS was contacted by an individual living in the Jackson, Mississippi area.  That individual inquired whether DAVIS would be willing to train the victim, who had just turned 16-years-old, to work as a prostitute.  DAVIS agreed, and and on November 26, 2012, DAVIS drove to the Scottish Inn in Jackson, Mississippi, picked up the victim, and drove her back to DAVIS’S residence in Metairie.  Once at the residence, DAVIS gave the victim drugs to numb her senses, took sexually suggestive photographs of the victim, and saved the photographs to his laptop computer.  DAVIS also arranged for the victim to be paired with a female who had worked as a prostitute for DAVIS; that individual used DAVIS’S laptop computer and the pictures DAVIS had taken of the victim to create a prostitution advertisement on an online classified advertisement website.  At DAVIS’S instruction, the female drove the victim to the French Quarter of New Orleans to work as a prostitute.  While in the French Quarter that evening, law enforcement officials arrested the minor for prostitution after an undercover officer arranged for the victim to perform a sexual act on the officer in exchange for $500.

If convicted, DAVIS faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of ten (15) years and a maximum of life, followed by up to a life term of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.  DAVIS can also be required to register as sex offenders. 

United States Attorney Polite reiterated that the Indictment is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

The investigation was initiated by the New Orleans Police Department and is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Louisiana State Police Special Victims Unit.  The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.