A truck driver was arrested earlier this month after picking up a woman and ‘maintaining a house of prostitution’ using her services.
52-year-old truck driver Shawn Brownlee was arrested on April 3rd in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma after meeting and picking up a woman from the Bay Area in California back in March. Brownlee had initially met up with the woman for a paid sex date.
According to OKC Fox 25, agents with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics Human Trafficking Unit (OBN) were alerted to Brownlee’s potential involvement in commercial sex operations after investigating commercial sex advertisements posted on European websites, offering sex in multiple states, including Oklahoma.
Agents then anonymously arranged an exchange with the woman, met up with her, and brought her to OBN headquarters to be interviewed. During the interview, agents discovered that Brownlee had been encouraging the woman to work with and for him since they met in California. He had persuaded her through the use of lewd text messages, and transported her in his semi truck from California to Oklahoma to Florida in an attempt to sell her for sex. The woman says that Brownlee offered encouragement, and even paid her, but the two never successfully sold a commercial sex date,
“He drove her to Oklahoma, and his intentions were to continue to facilitate commercial sex work for her,” said Mark Woodward with the OBN.
Brownlee was arrested in downtown Oklahoma city, after it was discovered he was paying for the woman’s hotel room as they attempted to get her paid dates. He is facing charges of pandering by procuring another person for prostitution and maintaining a house of prostitution. He is being held on a $50,000 bond.
The woman is now being cared for through the state’s victim assistance programs, reported News 9.
“The important thing is, we got her in a safe place, and she’s getting assistance right now through a shelter, so we’re very happy to get her recovered,” Woodward said to KOCO News. “It does start generating other phone calls and tips about other victims so, we do not want to say these will be the only charges filed against him.”
