Pimp’s conviction shows how prostitution exploits children

Unaccustomed to taking criticism from a strong woman, Quinton Williams exploded in rage as he listened to Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina Brown's rebuttal argument at the close of his trial March 6.

Williams yelled in protest, and at one point demanded to testify in his own defense in U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson's courtroom. But this was one dilemma Williams couldn't rap or slap away.

Williams, a 47-year-old Chicago pimp known on the street as "Goldie," was convicted that day of interstate transportation of minor females for prostitution, money laundering, the sex trafficking of children and interstate travel in aid of racketeering. With his prior convictions in Illinois, Williams was on his way to trading high times for hard time.

On Thursday, Williams was sentenced to 171/2 years in federal prison.

Does that seem like a harsh sentence handed down in a community that celebrates the sex trade and so thinly veils the marketing of its behemoth prostitution racket?

Some might argue that. But not me.

The Goldie Williams case has come to symbolize the protracted battle for the lives of sexually exploited children and teenagers, girls who carry the label prostitute but in reality are sex slaves. They are coerced and cajoled by snakes like Williams into the street life. Once they are under the control of a pimp, especially a traveler, they find their lives are no longer their own.

If it happens in Bangkok, it's the subject of a PBS documentary. But when it happens in Vegas, for many years it has stayed in Vegas. It's a black eye that gets covered up by the lipstick and rouge of our massive marketing machine.

Here's how long it took to drag this scumbag to justice. The charges against him evolved through a circuitous journey Williams made in December 2001 from Chicago to Las Vegas. He took with him a 15-year-old girl and an adult woman. After making stops in Portage, Ind., Houston and Phoenix, exploiting the child along the way, Williams ended up in a room at the Budget Suites on Tropicana Avenue. He dispatched the girl and the adult to Mandalay Bay to continue supporting him in the manner to which he'd become accustomed, but the plan was interrupted by Metro vice detectives.

Most of the time, such arrests result in a tail-chasing circle of justice that keeps vice cops busy but neither rescues the young girls nor sufficiently punishes their pimps. This time was different. This time, IRS Criminal Investigation agents and the U.S. attorney's office got involved. The result was a new way of nailing vermin like Williams.

The case against the pimp resulted in a 2003 conviction and a 10-year sentence, but a successful appeal won him a new trial. That new trial ended with an even longer sentence.

It's wishful thinking to believe one big sentence will change others' behavior -- in Las Vegas, there's a heavy demand for young prostitutes -- but seeing Metro work together with the heavy hitters at IRS Criminal gives me hope that pimps who exploit children will at last start paying a real price for their despicable crimes.

May Goldie and others like him break rocks in Hell.

The next time you hear some half-baked intellectual or daffy libertarian say prostitution is victimless and should be legalized in Las Vegas, try to remember that the argument really isn't about sex or what consenting adults do in private. It's not about a bunch of women being in charge of their own bodies, making reasoned decisions and working as independent contractors.

Prostitution's dark heart is its exploitation of young women and children. Through coercion, conditioning, or plain brute force, they wind up in a life they never would have chosen. They are victims, not criminals.

And where, you ask, is the center of this minor sex trafficking and exploitation in America?

Clark County, Nevada.

Enjoy your Sunday.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.