A New York man will spend 18 years in jail for pimping a susceptible minor for intercourse round Boston.
U.S. District Courtroom Choose Nathaniel M. Gorton sentenced Sherriff Cooper, 37, to 18 years in jail to be adopted by 5 years of supervised launch and ordered him to pay $97,200 in restitution to the sufferer. Cooper is incarcerated on the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island.
A federal grand jury convicted Cooper on Feb. 29 on costs of intercourse trafficking of a minor by power, fraud and coercion; transportation of a minor with intent to interact in legal sexual exercise; and compelled labor. He started pimping his sufferer in 2018 and was charged and arrested by the FBI in 2021.
Courtroom data present that Cooper submitted repeated motions to have his conviction overturned and, in June, filed a civil go well with in opposition to his sufferer demanding $11 million “for the irreparable harm suffered by the defendant retaliation of the plaintiffs protected speech and for falsely accusing the plaintiff of crimes he did not commit.”
Cooper, who was 31 on the time, met his then-15-year-old sufferer in 2017 whereas working as a safety guard at a residential program for pregnant teenagers. The sufferer, prosecutors say, had run away from a Massachusetts Division of Youngsters and Households heart for younger moms in Dorchester.
Cooper at first started a sexual relationship with the woman and the pair moved into the minor’s mom’s house collectively the place he began beating and drugging her. DCF positioned her in a brand new program in Newburyport, and Cooper would come by, prosecutors say in a sentencing memo, to have intercourse along with her within the parking zone “and abusing her when he thought she was ‘cheating’ on him with boys her own age.”
“In February 2018, Minor A ran away from the program and began living with Cooper,” prosecutor Stephen Hassink wrote within the sentencing memo. “She had no family to take her in and nowhere else to go. She had no money, no job, and no support. Cooper was waiting.”
That yr, Cooper began pimping her out round Boston. He pocketed all the cash and, prosecutors wrote in courtroom paperwork, “used violence, threats of violence and coercion to make the victim engage in commercial sex for his financial benefit.”
However that wasn’t all. He had a pretend ID made for her and transported her all the way down to his residence state of New York the place he obtained her employed at a strip membership and once more pocketed the entire cash. And, in line with an affidavit Cooper filed himself within the case, he and his sufferer now share a son.
Performing U.S. Legal professional Joshua Levy stated Cooper “viciously and cruelly exploited a vulnerable minor.”
“When he lost his job, Mr. Cooper decided he would rather sex traffic a vulnerable child for financial gain than seek legitimate employment — all the while physically abusing and threatening her,” Levy stated in a press release.
“Her bravery and courage in holding this defendant accountable is truly remarkable. Mr. Cooper’s refusal to accept any responsibility for his crimes or show remorse for the lifelong harm he inflicted underscores why he is truly deserving of this significant sentence.”
