Log in

News

Sex trafficker sentenced to 10 years in prison

Mesa Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case

Posted 1/22/21

Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Jan. 22 announced 27-year-old Louis Broadway-Phillips pleaded guilty to sex trafficking three women, including one minor.A Superior Court judge sentenced Mr. …

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue.

Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here

Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

To Our Valued Readers –

Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.

For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.

Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.

Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.

Sincerely,
Charlene Bisson, Publisher, Independent Newsmedia

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor
News

Sex trafficker sentenced to 10 years in prison

Mesa Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case

Posted

Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Jan. 22 announced 27-year-old Louis Broadway-Phillips pleaded guilty to sex trafficking three women, including one minor.

A Superior Court judge sentenced Mr. Broadway-Phillips to 10 years in prison, followed by lifetime probation and sex offender terms on Jan. 7. Mr. Broadway-Phillips pleaded guilty to illegal control of an enterprise, attempt to commit sex trafficking of a minor, sex trafficking, tampering with a witness and influencing a witness, according to a release.

Mr. Broadway-Phillips advertised on the Internet, transported the women to hotel rooms and forced them to perform prostitution acts in exchange for money during the time period of September 2017 to April 2018, the release states.

In April 2019, Mr. Broadway-Phillips was indicted by a state grand jury with sex trafficking and illegal enterprise crimes (CR 2019-001998). While on release and pending trial for those crimes, Mr. Broadway-Phillips threatened and attempted to convince all three women not to testify against him by contacting them himself, as well as using his friends and social media to harass and intimidate the women. In October 2019, Mr. Broadway-Phillips was charged in a new case (CR 2019-146684) for influencing and tampering with witnesses, it states.

“Justice demands that we hold traffickers accountable for their actions,” Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in the release. “Perpetrators use coercion and fear to re-victimize their vulnerable trafficking victims over and over. I commend Mesa Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations for their diligent work on this case. We will continue to work together to protect the most vulnerable in our communities.”

Homeland Security Investigations and Mesa Police Department investigated the case.

“Homeland Security Investigations is fully committed to utilizing every resource it has at its disposal to confront and aggressively combat the threat of sex trafficking,” Scott Brown, special agent in charge for the HSI Phoenix Office, said in the release. “We are most impactful when we partner with local law enforcement to ensure every lead and detail is thoroughly investigated to hold traffickers accountable for their atrocious crimes that have forever changed victims’ and survivors’ lives.”

“This is just one of many cases that underscores the importance working together with our state and federal partners,” Mesa Police Chief Ken Cost said in the release. “The relentless work by all investigators brought justice to everyone victimized. We will continue our commitment to serve and protect our community in the fight against sex trafficking.”

Assistant Attorney General Shawn Steinberg prosecuted the case.

Fighting human trafficking is a top priority for Attorney General Brnovich. Since 2015, the Attorney General’s Office has prosecuted 261 cases connected to sex trafficking, child sex trafficking or illegal enterprises/money laundering in the trafficking arena, the release states.

If you are the victim of human trafficking or if you suspect someone may be the victim of human traffickers, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text HELP to BeFree (233733). The National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline is a national, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls from anywhere in the U.S., 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in more than 200 languages.