Suspect arrested on charges of trafficking for sexual exploitation

The victim was assaulted while asleep.

By Jared Grafman

Published Nov. 2, 2010

Police arrested Young T. Le on charges of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation last week. The arrest was in relation to a June incident.

The victim, 20, had been a guest at Le's residence and was sleeping in a bedroom, which Le entered without invitation, Columbia Police Department spokeswoman Jill Wieneke said in an e-mail.

While she slept, Le sexually molested her, Wieneke said. Le filmed the incident with his cell phone, later transferring the video to his laptop computer.

On Oct. 26, Le was taken into custody and his bond was set at $35,000. According to court records, his preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Nov. 16.

CPD initially arrested Le on June 22, but the prosecutor did not originally prosecute charges in the incident, Wieneke said in an e-mail.

Additional evidence retrieved during a search warrant including computer, video and photo evidence led to the arrest for trafficking, Wieneke said. Le is charged with trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

“During the assault Le placed a pillow over the victim's face, and filmed himself assaulting the victim by fondling her and exposing her,” Wieneke said in the e-mail. “The victim woke up during the assault and positively identified Le as the person who was assaulting her.  The victim tried to roll back over and act as if she had gone back to sleep but Le would roll her onto her back again and continue the assault.”

Wieneke said the charge might be misleading in regards to the actual incident. The incident did not involve prostitution.

“I thought the same thing when I first saw the report,” she said. “Because when you think of trafficking, you think of like people who have people brought to this country for sexual exploitation, or people move to this country and then kind of get involved with somebody who pretty much makes them prostitutes or whatever, that’s what that makes you think of, right?”

Trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation encompasses crimes other than those related with prostitution.

“That’s not really what this case is about,” Wieneke said. “The prosecutors looked at the law, and the way the law is worded, he or she thought it was applicable to this situation, which doesn’t involve any of those things.”

A person commits the crime of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation if a person knowingly recruits, transports, provides or obtains by any means another person for the use or employment of such person in sexual conduct without his or her consent, according to Chapter 566, Section 566.209 of the Missouri Revised Statutes. The crime is a Class B felony.

The charge filed Oct. 26 resulted after CPD obtained additional evidence by conducting search warrants on Le’s cell phone and computer.

According to court records, a bond reduction hearing was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday.