DALLAS – Mecose Mendale Shorter, 32, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to 60 months in federal prison for engaging in an enterprise that promoted prostitution at various hotels in Dallas, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
Shorter pleaded guilty to one count of using a facility of interstate commerce in aid or a racketeering enterprise. Shorter’s co-defendants, Kenneth Laray White, 27, and his brother, Damion Kentrell White, 25, were sentenced earlier this year to 326 months and 240 months, respectively, in federal prison.
Each pleaded guilty to one count of using a facility of interstate commerce in aid of a racketeering enterprise and one firearm offense.
According to documents filed in the case, from approximately July 4, 2013, to July 22, 2013, Mecose Shorter, Damion White, and Kenneth White engaged in an enterprise that promoted prostitution in various hotels in Dallas.
In early July 2013, Damion and Kenneth White recruited a mentally challenged 18-year-old girl to work for them in the prostitution enterprise. While Shorter had contact with the 18-year-old girl on various occasions, during this time period, he was engaged in the unlawful activity of promoting prostitution of another female, Jane Doe.
Shorter admitted he used facilities of interstate or foreign commerce, namely a cell phone and hotel rooms, with the intent to promote, manage, establish, carry on, and/or facilitate Jane Doe’s involvement in commercial sex acts. Shorter further admitted he received payments from Jane Doe for engaging in commercial sex acts.
Damion and Kenneth White knew their victim since she was 15 years old. When she was age 18, they devised a plan to recruit her to engage in commercial sex acts for them by taking advantage of her diminished mental capacity. In late June 2013, Damion White established a friendship with the victim, and then, in early July of 2013, he used false pretenses to convince her to leave her home with him.
That night, Kenneth and Damion White drove the victim to a motel in Dallas where Damion White had rented a room. Kenneth White used his cell phone to take provocative photos of the victim that they later used in advertisements they posted on backpage.com. They deprived her of food and prevented her from leaving the room to encourage her to engage in commercial sex acts for them. Kenneth White had sex with the victim, and the victim eventually engaged in commercial sex acts and provided the money she earned to Kenneth White. Kenneth and Damion White used the Internet and a cell phone to coordinate the victim’s commercial sex acts with potential customers.
Later, Kenneth and Damion White moved the victim to another motel in Dallas where they continued to compel her to engage in commercial acts during the latter part of July 2013. Officers with the Dallas Police Department rescued the victim from this motel on July 22, 2013.
