OAKLAND — Just two weeks after a 35-year-old Portland man was arrested on pimping charges, Alameda County prosecutors have dismissed the case for “lack of a complaining witness,” court records show.
The case was initiated on Jan. 8, when an Oregon woman called police to report she was being held against her will by her pimp, through threats of violence. The woman later told investigators the man was holding her to a $1,000-per-day quota, and rebuffed her requests to come inside because of the cold, authorities said.
Related Articles
Police: East Bay man found in Marin County home trying on resident’s clothes
Police ID pair found dead after shooting, wounding Alameda County sheriff’s deputy
East Bay man, 31, charged with arranging to meet 13-year-old at hotel room
East Bay man, on probation in 2022 human trafficking case, arrested with gun and teen in car, police say
Will CHP deployment into Oakland lead to a drop in crime?
Prosecutors charged him with pimping and pandering by encouraging, both felonies, on Jan. 16. Two weeks later, they moved to dismiss the case and the man was released from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
The woman told police that she and the man met on Facebook around New Year’s Day, and that he promised her they would “build an empire” together through prostitution. But first, she accompanied him on his job getting people to sign petitions outside of a Walmart in San Leandro, she allegedly told investigators.
On Jan. 8, the woman called police from a hotel on the 100 block of Hegenberger Road to report she’d been held against her will and recently escaped her pimp, authorities said. Police confirmed the 35-year-old Portland man had rented a room at the hotel and arrested him a week later in Hayward, records show.
