Judge Lee's opinion today seems moderate and right to me. Yes, the sentence is long (12+ years), but there's insufficient evidence that it's inordinately long, and the defendant was convicted of attempting to pimp a 16-year old and the statutory minimum is 10 years. Yes, there was some basis for asserting that there might be discriminatory racial prosecution, since all of the San Diego federal juvenile sex trafficking sting defendants were Black, but the sample size was incredibly small (six people) and the district court didn't abuse its discretion in refusing to allow discovery. Those conclusions seem sound to me, and I liked the careful and considerate way Judge Lee wrote the opinion.
I'll add that I thought that the San Diego task force that conducts these online stings seems to be doing a very good job. You can read the opinion for more details. But I was very impressed by the professionalism and effectiveness of the stings. Put up a fake Instagram page of a fake woman with risque photographs and various veiled references to prostitution (e.g., stacks of money, "roses" (which I know from other cases is a euphemism for money paid for sex), crowns, etc.) and let the potential would-be pimps come to you. And then, once they do, slowly reel them in, and then up the ante by saying that you're 16. That latter point will make for huge time in prison.
The one symbol I didn't understand -- which I then had to look up -- was including the number "304" in the Instagram handle. What? How's that a reference to prostitution? Hadn't heard that before. I know from originally being from Virginia that that's the area code for West Virginia, but how's that related?
Oh. Now I get it. Type it into a handheld calculator and turn it upside down and it spells "Hoe".
Like anyone has a handheld calculator these days anyway.
