OAKLAND — A Richmond man has agreed to plead no contest to pimping in exchange for a six-year prison term, according to court records.
Joseph Walker, 32, was originally charged with human trafficking of a then-19-year-old woman who testified that Walker sexually assaulted her twice, and slapped her across the face on multiple occasions while he was acting as her panderer out of an Oakland hotel. She was introduced to Walker by a panderess she was with in Vallejo, she also told police.
The terms of Walker’s deal required him to plead no contest to pimping and sexual battery, and agree to serve six years in prison. He must also register as a sex offender for 10 years, according to his plea form.
Walker now has pimping convictions in both Contra Costa and Alameda counties. In 2019, he pleaded guilty to pimping in a Contra Costa courtroom, and was sentenced to three years in state prison. He was released on parole in early 2021, according to court records.
The young woman in Walker’s Alameda County case testified they met in October 2022. On her second day of knowing him, he slapped her in the face hard enough to knock her down after she “gave him attitude,” she testified.
Days later, when he told her he wanted sex and to pull down her pants, she obeyed him out of fear of violence, she said on the stand. Walker’s lawyer said there was insufficient evidence to prove Walker had coerced the woman, which is required to establish a human trafficking offense.
Walker remains in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin awaiting sentencing on Jan. 2, 2024, court records show.
