A Columbia man forced at least 11 women to perform sex acts for money as part of a sex-trafficking ring, according to a federal indictment unsealed last week.
The indictment names Damon Jackson of Columbia, who was arrested at a North Charleston motel for sex trafficking in 2014, and claims he threatened violence against the women if they did not service his customers.
The indictment identifies the women only by their initials.
Two of the initials match those of women North Charleston police said Jackson was trafficking at the Comfort Inn near the North Charleston Coliseum before his arrest in August 2014.
In May 2014, a 20-year-old woman with the initials B.E. told officers she had just escaped from the motel after being held against her will and made to service men. The indictment identifies one of the women that Jackson is accused of trafficking as B.E.
Another woman linked to Jackson is identified as L.W. Her initials match those of a 23-year-old woman North Charleston police said Jackson was trafficking at the motel.
Jackson is also accused of trafficking a third woman at the motel, although it’s not clear which one in the indictment that was.
The indictment says Jackson also trafficked two minors.
It’s not clear how many of those women are said to be trafficked in North Charleston or elsewhere. The time period of Jackson’s alleged crimes is from April 2011 through July 2014.
After it became clear that Jackson’s crimes went beyond North Charleston, local investigators called in Homeland Security Investigations, whose work led to the federal charges, according to Bryan Cox, spokesman for the Atlanta office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees Homeland Security.
Identifying information of women believed to be victims of sex trafficking is zealously guarded by law enforcement officers, prosecutors and victim advocates. A big reason for that is to protect the victims from people who might want to convince them to testify that they were not being forced into commercial sex, according to Cox.
The women are offered immunity from prostitution charges if they testify that they were being forced into sex, Cox said.
In an interview at the jail, Jackson said the women he was involved with were willing business partners and that evidence will come out during his trial.
The indictment says Jackson and seven traffickers “did physically beat or threaten to physically beat the minor victims and young women to scare and control them.”




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North Charleston police later arrested two other men on state trafficking charges who are named in the indictment as part of Jackson’s trafficking ring.
On Aug. 1, 2014, three weeks before Jackson was arrested, North Charleston police were told a 16-year-old girl had been sold for sex at a Motel 6 on Ashley Phosphate Road from March through May. The incident report lists Da’Shun Shukur Curry, 22, and Kerry Ontavic Taylor, 20, both of Columbia, as suspects. They were arrested in March 2015 on state trafficking charges. Curry was also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Now they face federal charges.
The federal indictment says Curry trafficked three minors from December 2013 to June 2014.
The indictment says Taylor trafficked two of the minors and a woman from March 2014 until the time of his arrest a year later. Taylor also filmed another minor in action for child-porn videos, according to the indictment.
Daewon Warren, 26, and Monique Lewis, 22, both of Summerville, are also being held in the Charleston County jail on federal trafficking charges but were not named in the federal indictment. Warren was arrested last March after North Charleston police said he held a 17-year-old girl at the Motel 6 on Ashley Phosphate Road for a month and forced her to turn $500 worth of tricks per day off backpage.com or be beaten and starved. A federal indictment names Lewis as his partner and said they transported the girl across state lines for commercial sex.
Reach Dave Munday at 843-937-5553