Department of Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14, 2007  

WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN                                       Natalya.LaBauve@usdoj.gov 

TEXAS MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO TRANSPORTING A MINOR TO AND FROM CALIFORNIA FOR PURPOSES OF PROSTITUTION

OAKLAND – United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that Franklin Bryant, 30, formerly of Houston, Texas, pled guilty in United States District Court yesterday to two counts of transporting a minor for purposes of prostitution under 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a) and one count of transporting a person for purposes of prostitution under 18 U.S.C. § 2421. According to the plea agreement, in August, 2005, Mr. Bryant traveled from California to Arizona with a 17-year-old female in order for her to engage in prostitution, and returned from Arizona to California with the 17-year-old as well as a 19-year-old female, intending that they both engage in prostitution in the Bay Area. Mr. Bryant gained financially from these acts of prostitution. Mr. Bryant secured clients by advertising the girls as escorts over the Internet.

In the plea agreement, Mr. Bryant has agreed to serve a prison term of 96 months, with a subsequent term of supervised release of eight years. Mr. Bryant has also agreed to pay restitution to the two female victims totalling $5,000. In addition, Mr. Bryant will be required to register as a sex offender. Sentencing is scheduled for September 5, 2007, at 2:00 p.m., before the Honorable Claudia Wilken, United States District Court Judge.

The prosecution, part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood, is the result of the combined efforts of the Union City Police Department, the Mesa, Arizona Police Department, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office - Fremont Branch, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Project Safe Childhood is a national initiative launched last year by the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at combining federal, state and local law enforcement resources in order to bring more Internet-related child exploitation prosecutions, and to educate the public about the dangers that the Internet poses to children.

Michelle Morgan-Kelly, the District’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator, is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case, with the assistance of legal assistant Cynthia Daniel.

Further Information:              Case #: CR 07-00031-CW

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Natalya LaBauve at (415) 436-7055 or by email at Natalya.LaBauve@usdoj.gov.

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