Federal prosecutors on Wednesday said a grand jury indicted a California mother and son accused of forcing two 13-year-old girls into sex work.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said Daisy Pollard-Gilliam, 41, and her son, Reuben Gilliam, 24, both of Compton, are charged with sex trafficking a minor. Mr. Gilliam is also facing child pornography charges while Ms. Pollard-Gilliam is charged with illegally possessing a firearm as a felon.
Prosecutors said the two victims were walking in Bell Gardens in the middle of the night on June 3 when Mr. Gilliam and two other men drove up to the girls and told them to get inside their car.
Mr. Gilliam and his accomplices drove the girls to a home in Lynwood, where the victims were forced to perform sex acts with Mr. Gilliam, Ms. Pollard-Gilliam and “unidentified commercial sex customers to make money.”
“The customers told one victim that they paid $100 to have sexual intercourse with her and the defendants collected the cash after the customer had sex with the victims,” court documents said.
The filing also said the two teens were forced to take photos while wearing lingerie to advertise themselves to other potential customers.
Prosecutors said Mr. Gilliam and Ms. Pollard-Gilliam moved the victims out of the Lynwood home after seeing a missing children’s poster for the two girls on social media.
The attorney’s office said both girls were inside a car when authorities rescued them on June 9.
According to the court documents, Ms. Pollard-Gilliam shared images and videos of the girls with an inmate at a state prison in Delano, California, and Mr. Gilliam messaged people on Instagram about the girls and their sex work.
Mr. Gilliam is behind bars on unrelated charges and is expected to be transferred to federal custody.
Police arrested Ms. Pollard-Gilliam last month. Prosecutors said the defendant was caught with a gun, despite being convicted of felony child endangerment in 2021.
If convicted of the charges, Mr. Gilliam and Ms. Pollard-Gilliam would face a minimum of 15 years in prison.