More charges likely in sex trafficking prosecution
One man of a four-person team accused of kidnapping and human trafficking will likely face additional trafficking charges, a prosecutor said.
Archie L. Thompson, 26, appeared for his bail hearing in Sutter County Superior Court on Wednesday and had his preliminary hearing today canceled.
During Thompson’s attorney said there may be four more cases being filed against him in the near future, and he also didn’t have all of the police reports in his possession yet.
Thompson’s pre-preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 12, along with a bail hearing. He remains in Sutter County Jail with bail set at $500,000.
Deputy District Attorney Clint Curry on Thursday said he plans to amend Thompson’s complaint with additional human trafficking charges by next week.
Thompson pleaded not guilty on March 15 to kidnapping for robbery, rape or sodomy, and human trafficking for sex.
Thompson – along with codefendants Malcolm M. Lartigue, 19; Madison A. Gonzalez, 20; and Jamie L. Bobb, 19 – is accused of forcing an unidentified recent high school graduate to perform sex acts for money.
On Jan. 20, Gonzalez pleaded no contest to human trafficking for sex. Bobb pleaded no contest to kidnapping. Both were released from jail on their own recognizance and are scheduled the appearance,
for sentencing April 21.
Lartigue is scheduled to return to court next week. He remains in Sutter County Jail with bail set at $500,000.
On Dec. 2, the woman was taken from a Yuba City residence by gunpoint, forced to take Xanax (a drug often prescribed for anxiety disorders) and moved to different vehicles before she awoke in an Antioch hotel, authorities said.
At the hotel, the woman told police, she was told that Thompson was going to post her on Backpage.com to start a business. The website lists free classified ads that officials say are sometimes used to advertise prostitution. She was able to get out of the hotel room to a local Dairy Queen and call 911.
When Antioch police responded, the woman told officers she had been offered a job giving massages by Gonzalez and Thompson. She was flown from Utah and Arizona, and while in Arizona, she was told she would be hav-
ing sex with clients for money. She refused at first, but she was threatened and her contact with family was monitored, according to archives.
She had also spoken with Salt Lake City police during an investigation into a post on Backpage.com in their jurisdiction, according to archives. In that interview, she said her pimp was in California and she was in Utah to earn money performing fellatio. She had been homeless, she said, and this had been a way to be off the street and earning money. But the money wasn’t hers to keep.