JACKSONVILLE. Fla. – A Jacksonville man faces 15 years to life in federal prison if he’s convicted of forcible sex trafficking.
An indictment was returned against Richard Anthony Moffett, 30, who also goes by the name “Mook,” officials said Thursday.
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Moffett is charged with three counts of sex trafficking by force and threats of force.
Between late 2016 and mid-2017, Moffett forcibly trafficked three victims in the commercial sex industry in Jacksonville, according to court documents referenced in a Department of Justice news release.
When one of Moffett’s alleged victims was arrested and accused of prostitution, she identified him to officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, investigators said.
It was May 17 of last year when the alleged victim told the officers that Moffett would come looking for her. She also said she met Moffett through her husband, who had purchased drugs from him, officials said.
The woman was told that she could stay with Moffett, and he gave her food and shelter. The next day, Moffett told her that she would need to have sex for money if she wanted to stay, the news release said.
Moffett’s alleged victim said she watched him repeatedly beat someone for withholding money and for failing to promptly repost her advertisements for sex, investigators said.
Moffett also coerced people, who at the time were drug users, by withholding narcotics if they didn’t go on enough sex “dates,” officials said.
Moffett is accused of threatening to kill the children of at least one of his alleged victims if she tried to leave him. He also pointed a handgun at a third victim when he believed the woman was withholding money from him and then hit her in the back of the head with the gun, investigators said.
The case was investigated by the JSO, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office.