Department of Justice | U.S. Attorney’s Office | Southern District of Florida
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Friday, November 18, 2022
MIAMI — A 26-year-old Broward County man was sentenced today in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., by U.S. District Court Judge William P. Dimitrouleas to 30 years in prison and five years of supervised release for conspiring to traffic minor girls for commercial sex.
On August 11, 2022, following a four-day trial, a federal jury found Kerby Brown Jr., aka “Slime,” guilty of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor, attempted sex trafficking of a minor, and sex trafficking of a minor.
Brown conspired to traffic at least five minor girls for commercial sex between November 2018 and May 2019. Starting in November 2018, he worked to recruit three minor girls for commercial sex work at a hotel party. Brown successfully posted a commercial sex advertisement online for at least one of those minors—Minor Victim 1—who was 14 years old. At the time, Minor Victim 1 was a runaway.
Between January and February 2019, Brown trafficked 15-year-old Minor Victim 2 for commercial sex. Like Minor Victim 1, she was a runaway when Brown recruited her. He lured Minor Victim 2 under the guise of offering her a free place to stay.
However, Brown later caused her to sell herself for commercial sex in order to contribute to costs. He drove Minor Victim 2 from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando, Fla., where she engaged in commercial sex acts with strangers at his discretion. He then drove Minor Victim 2 back to Fort Lauderdale where she continued to engage in commercial sex acts.
Minor Victim 2 testified at trial that she forfeited the majority of proceeds from these commercial sex acts directly to Brown, who coordinated each encounter by using explicit photos of Minor Victim 2 to advertise to interested parties. During trial there was a voice recording where Brown had discussed Minor Victim 2 with an 18-year-old female co-conspirator.
Brown was arrested in May 2019 during a sex trafficking operation after he delivered his female co-conspirator for a commercial sex act with an undercover officer. In the car that Brown was driving, law enforcement found a 17-year-old girl. The only possessions the minor had with her were a cellular telephone and a purse containing condoms.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; acting Special Agent in Charge Robert M. DeWitt, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; acting Special Agent in Charge Aaron LaFortune, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), Miami Field Office; Hollywood Police Department Chief Chris O’Brien; and Fort Lauderdale Police Department Chief Patrick Lynn announced the sentence.
This case was investigated by FBI’s Crimes Against Children Human Trafficking Task Force, in partnership with the Hollywood Police Department, and the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Monica K. Castro and Manolo Reboso.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood assembles federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
To report suspected human trafficking or to obtain resources for victims, please call 1-888-373-7888; text “BeFree” (233733), or live chat at HumanTraffickingHotline.org. The toll-free phone, SMS text lines, and online chat function are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Help is available in English, Spanish, Creole, or in more than 200 additional languages. The hotline is not managed by law enforcement, immigration, or an investigative agency. Correspondence is confidential and you may request assistance or report a tip anonymously. To learn more about the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to combat human trafficking, visit www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
