Man called `Scarface' charged with human trafficking of teen girls in two cases

OAKLAND >> Last month, police drafted an arrest warrant for a 45-year-old man who a teenage girl identified as her pimp, alleging he trafficked her in Oakland, Stockton and other parts of California for the better part of a month.

But when police went to arrest Oakland resident

Lawrence Johnson, they didn't have to go far; Johnson was already in the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, facing charges of trafficking another teen girl around the same time, court records show. Now Johnson has two near-identical cases to reckon with — both charging him with human trafficking of a minor — with bail set at $360,000 in one case and $400,000 in the other.

In court records, police allege that one of the victims was detained Aug. 29, 2021, in a prostitution sting on International Boulevard, and subsequently identified Johnson as her pimp. She allegedy told police that two days earlier, Johnson pulled up alongside her in a vehicle as she stood on 25th Avenue and International Boulevard, told her she was pretty, and convinced her to get in his car.

Just two days before that arrest, police received a tip about a man nicknamed “Scarface” who was trafficking girls in Oakland. It came from a victim's advocate in the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office who reported one of her colleagues knew of a trafficking victim in Oakland.

Police contacted the girl, who alleged that Johnson trafficked her on International

Boulevard for roughly 10 days, then took her to a hotel in Stockton where they stayed for another 10 days. She said she “worked every night” and turned all the money over to Johnson as a “program fee,” totaling thousands of dollars, according to police.

“The victim told Johnson she wanted to leave and he grabbed the bags out of her hand and threw her against the door, she screamed as

Johnson hurt her head,” Oakland police investigator Louise Reeves wrote in a probable cause statement. “The police were called but she did not give her name to them. Johnson would not let her leave the hotel but she was eventually able to get away.”

The girl identified Johnson only by the nickname “Scarface,” due to a scar below one of his eyes, police said.