Trial date set in sex trafficking, abuse case

The federal sex trafficking trial of two men, one from a prominent Main Line family, accused of engineering a sexual triangle involving a teenage girl, has been scheduled for later this summer.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter formally set Sept. 14 as the date for the beginning of jury selection in the cases against Lawrence “Larry” Jamieson of Willistown and John Brown of Norristown. If found guilty of the charges against them, they could be sentenced to life in prison.

The trial had initially been scheduled to begin on June 12. But an attorney for Jamieson, Arthur Donato of Media, filed a motion to continue the case ear lier this month, telling Pratter that he was “actively engaged in negotiations to attempt to resolve the matter by a non-trial disposition” — suggesting that he was trying to work out a deal with the prosecution to have Jamieson plead guilty to an agreed upon sentence instead of going to trial.

The attorney for Brown, Diane Tosta of Montgomery County, also asked for a continuance. She cited more time needed to file pre-trial motions on behalf of her client.

In his order, Pratter agreed that it would be best for all parties to set a new date for trial. To deny the continuance requests, he wrote, “would likely make such proceedings impossible or would result in a miscarriage of justice.”

In his order, Pratter asked each of the defense attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella, who is prosecuting the case, for trial in September. The case is expected to last seven days.

In March, acting U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen, announced the unsealing of a 42 count indictment against Jamieson, 57, and Brown, 25, involving their alleged sexual abuse of the teenage girl, images of the girl having sex, and the discovery of a cache of child pornography in Jamieson’s home.

The pair were charged with

enticing a minor to engage in illicit sexual conduct, manufacturing child pornography, transferring obscene materials to a minor, distribution of child pornography, receipt of child pornography, and possession of a collection of images and videos of children being sexually abused and in sexually explicit positions on various dates in 2015 and 2016.

The abuse of the girl allegedly took place on multiple occasions in Chester and Montgomery counties over more than 18 months, when she was aged between 15 and 17, and included the pair’s photographing, videotaping, and distributing images and videos of the girl in sexual situations.

Brown is also charged with taking sexually explicit photos of a second victim, an infant girl. Lastly, the indictment also charges Jamieson and Brown with maintaining collections of sexually explicit images of children taken from the internet.

The pair had previously been charged by Willistown police with similar illegal conduct. But the penalties they face if convicted in federal court far outweighed the potential penalties they faced in Common Pleas Court. They are both now being held in the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia.

The federal case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

The local prosecution was thought to be the first case of sex trafficking brought by Chester County authorities.

If convicted, both defendants face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, which includes a 15year mandatory minimum term of incarceration, and five years up to a lifetime of supervised release.

Jamieson also faces a $5.75 million fine and a mandatory special assessment of $110,100, and Brown faces a $4.75 million fine and a mandatory special assessment of $90,100.

Local authorities said in August that the men had conspired to lure a teenage girl that Jamieson knew into a sexual relationship with Brown, and then into a similar situation with himself. The men then exchanged sexually explicit videos and photos involving the girl. When Willistown investigators arrested Jamieson and searched his township home, they allegedly found a horde of child pornography that they said reached the thousands in number of illegal images.

Jamieson is the son of a well-known and popular couple on the Main Line, and was a self-employed contractor at the time of his arrest. Brown worked at a Montgomery County tire store. It is unclear how they became acquainted.

According to the criminal complaints filed against the men by Willistown Detective Stephen Jones, Jamieson introduced the young girl to Brown in February 2015 when she was 15. Jamieson told the girl that Brown was only 17 years old, a high school student like her, even though he was 23 years old at the time. Authorities said Brown changed his appearance to make him seem much younger than he actually was.

When police interviewed the girl in 2016, she told them that she had been dating Brown for over a year, and that he was “everything she ever wanted in a boyfriend.”

Jones said he learned that Jamieson had begun arranging for Brown to meet the victim in late 2014. He provided Brown with a fake age, fake birthdate, and fake information, including that he attended a cyber school, in order to gain the girl’s confidence. Brown agreed to meet the girl and seduce her so that he could have sex with her and persuade her to have sex with Jamieson. He also agreed to exchange photos and video of the sexual encounters with the older man.

The affidavit contends that between March 2015 and July, Brown had sex with the girl approximately 20 to 50 times, at both his house and Jamieson’s. The encounters were arranged by Jamieson, and he would drive the victim to meet Brown, asking Brown to record the acts and send them to him via text message and email.

Jamieson also persuaded Brown to press the girl to have sex with him, and sometimes watched the sexual encounters between the alleged victim and Brown. The girl told police that she had sex with Jamieson on multiple occasions between March and July, when the affair was uncovered.

Based on information received in the investigation, the police obtained a search warrant for Jamieson’s residence. During that search, police recovered approximately 1,000 DVDs, thumb drives, and other electronic storage devices. The storage devices had titles such as: “Asian 4 yo”; “ymmiss – 7 yo”; and “Roxanne 13 yo”. Such titles are normally associated with child pornography.