Los Angeles Times

Sex ring operator gets five years

- By James Queally

A California movie producer was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday after admitting to running an internatio­nal prostituti­on ring in a case in which several women accused him of being abusive and drugging them, according to court records and the Associated Press.

Dillon Jordan, a 50-yearold Los Angeles native, originally faced decades in prison for a raft of prostituti­on, money laundering and conspiracy charges, but he reached a plea deal with federal prosecutor­s in New York last year. Prosecutor­s alleged he raked in more than $1.4 million by making a cadre of young women available to clients in the U.S. and United Kingdom for more than seven years.

According to a pre-sentencing memo filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan this month, Jordan charged up to $100,000 to arrange sex parties and as much as $15,000 for one-onone sessions between clients and the women working for him. Jordan, who typically retained as much as 40% of the profits from each encounter he scheduled, was arrested as part of a 2016 sting operation, court records show.

U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan said Thursday he would have sentenced Jordan to more than five years in prison if he could have, due to the physical and emotional damage he caused to the women in his employ, according to the Associated Press. Jordan pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy, which limited Cronan’s ability to hand down a heavier sentence, records show.

In their pre-sentencing memo, prosecutor­s detailed allegation­s from women whom Jordan allegedly drugged and tried to sexually assault since 2010. One woman, who was 18 at the time, recalled being led around on a leash by Jordan in front of other men in Las Vegas. Another alleged Jordan gave her GHB, commonly referred to as the date rape drug. Later that night, she said, she was sexually assaulted “as part of an orgy” that included Jordan, court records show.

Another woman, identified in court records as Victim 4, said Jordan treated her like a “slave.”

“For years, almost anytime we went to an ‘exciting’ event it would end in abuse. He would usually end up getting high and then I would have to endure it until it was over,” she said, according to the prosecutio­n memo. “I’d have to fear who might touch me. What are they going to do to me? What will I be forced into?”

Jordan’s defense team asked that he be sentenced to a maximum of 27 months in prison, arguing he was the product of a “tortured childhood” that involved frequent visits to strip clubs and nightclubs. They also argued Jordan left the prostituti­on business behind in 2017 to try his hand at film and interior design.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States