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Most of Robert Lee Johnson’s victims worked on an “all in” basis, meaning they would give all of the money they earned from performing sex acts to him in exchange for having basic living expenses, according to acting United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler.
The women “relied on Johnson for food and clothing and, most significantly, heroin to support their addictions,” said Brandler.
“Johnson was often violent, threatened the victims and physically assaulted them if they tried to keep any money or if they were ‘disrespectful’…[Johnson also would] withhold heroin from addicts until they reached a quota of tricks.”
Johnson -- also known as "Stone," of York -- was indicted nearly 3 years ago for recruiting and enticing multiple victims to commercial sex acts, impacting interstate commerce, United States Attorney David J. Freed in a statement released by the DOJ in 2018.
He knew force, threats of force, fraud and coercion would be used to cause multiple of those victims to engage in commercial sex acts from November 2015 through mid-August 2016, in York County, Freed said.
Johnson was already in prison for selling drugs when the FBI investigation into his sex trafficking crimes concluded.
He was sentenced on Thursday, April 8.
This case was investigated as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone, according to the DOJ.
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