BOSTON, August 13, 2015— The state’s highest court today affirmed the Suffolk County convictions of two men who trafficked three women for sex – the first convictions secured under the state’s human trafficking law.
In affirming the 2014 convictions of TYSHAUN McGHEE (D.O.B. 10/10/80) and SIDNEY McGEE (D.O.B. 2/11/84), both of Roxbury, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the constitutionality of the state’s human trafficking statute. The statute, passed in late 2011, created the offense of trafficking in persons for sexual servitude.
McGhee and McGee were found guilty in Feb. 2014 of three counts of the offense; McGhee was also convicted of two counts of deriving support from a prostitute. In their appeal, the defendants claimed that the human trafficking statute was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad – arguments the court rejected.
“The statutory language provided fair notice to the defendants that the very conduct in which they engaged was the kind of conduct that the Legislature intended to prohibit and punish,” the justices wrote in a 41-page decision authored by Justice Francis X. Spina.
“The defendants’ actions fell squarely within the conduct unambiguously proscribed by [the statute],” they stated.
McGee is currently serving a sentence of 10 to 12 years in state prison and McGhee is serving a term of 10 to 15 years in connection with the human trafficking convictions. McGhee also received a concurrent sentence on two counts of deriving support from prostitution of five years to five years and a day in prison. State law, however, sets the maximum sentence for the offense at five years in prison. The justices today ruled that the sentence imposed on McGhee exceeded that maximum term by one day and vacated that part of his sentence. The matter was remanded to the Suffolk Superior Court for resentencing. However, because that portion of McGhee’s sentence runs concurrently with a longer sentence on human trafficking charges, today’s ruling is not expected to impact the length of his incarceration.
During their five-day trial last year, Suffolk prosecutors presented evidence and testimony to prove that the defendants approached three vulnerable women with a history of homelessness and drug addiction and enlisted them into prostitution. One was approached outside Boston Medical Center after treatment of two drug overdoses within 24-hours, the second while waiting in line outside a homeless shelter, and the third at a methadone clinic.
The testimony of two of the victims – corroborated by text messages recovered from Tyshaun McGhee’s phone, records subpoenaed from online prostitution sources, and witness statements – proved that they were coerced into sexual activity with strangers at various locations over the course of several days in September 2012 and were made to give some or all of the money to McGhee. Both defendants were indicted under the human trafficking statute in December 2012.
Massachusetts’ human trafficking statute was passed in late 2011 with key language drafted by Conley and Attorney General Martha Coakley. That followed by several years a voluntary policy shift in which Conley adopted a “safe harbor” policy for prostituted youth, treating them as victims of exploitation rather than offenders; that voluntary policy was later mandated statewide. Members of Conley’s staff also direct the Support to End Exploitation Now program, a multi-agency task force that connects young exploitation victims with a wide array of services and has twice been named a Top 50 Innovative Government Program by a Harvard University think tank.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Sears of the DA’s Appellate Unit argued the case on appeal. Former Assistant District Attorney Jennifer O’Keefe prosecuted the case at trial. Christine Berardino was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. McGhee was represented on appeal by Sharon Dehman and McGee by David Jellinek.
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
