PAO Partners With U.S. Attorney's Office

Taking Down Violent Street Gang

The Prosecuting Attorney's Office (PAO) has partnered with the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of Washington (USAO) to charge 10 of the estimated 25-30 members of the Westside Street MOBB with felonies in state and federal court.  The Westside Street Mobb is a violent street gang that recruits and forces teenage girls into organized prostitution.  They also use bank fraud, illegal gun possession and witness intimidation as part of their "business model."

On August 28, Westside Street Mobb members Shawn Clark, Mario Foster, and Gerald Jackson pleaded guilty to multiple counts of Promoting Prostitution and Promoting Commercial Sexual Abuse of a Minor.  As part of their guilty pleas, defendant Clark agreed to a nine-year prison sentence, defendant Foster a five-year prison sentence, and defendant Jackson a four-year prison sentence. Earlier this year, gang members Mycah Johnson and Desmond Manago each pleaded guilty to the crime of Promoting Prostitution in the First Degree. Johnson was sentenced to 21 months in prison while Manago is still pending sentencing.

Federal prosecutors have also indicted four members of the gang, and have opened investigations on several others.

The successful law enforcement team was led by detectives from the Seattle Police Department Vice Unit, detectives of the King County Sheriff's Office and Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Sean O'Donnell and DPA Christina Miyamasu.  PAO victim advocates also worked closely with the young women, many of whom had been runaways on the streets and had been forced into prostitution to benefit the Westside Street Mobb.

The PAO has charged another Westside Street Mobb member with First Degree Human Trafficking, First Degree Promoting Prostitution, Promoting Commercial Sexual Abuse of a Minor, and Second Degree Assault.  "This is our first use of the new Human Trafficking statute," said Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, "and it fits precisely the kind of forced servitude that this defendant inflicted upon his victims in this case." That defendant is currently awaiting trial, and faces a sentence of nearly 20 years in prison.

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