2003-08-07 -- Jimenez-Calderon, Antonia and Librada -- Sentencing -- News Release

"Madams" Sentenced to 210 Months in Prison for Forcing Mexican Teens into Prostitution in N.J.

NEWARK - Two Mexican nationals were sentenced today to 210 months in prison for luring four teenage Mexican girls to the United States and holding them captive as prostitutes at a brothel they ran in Plainfield, N.J., Attorney General John Ashcroft and U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Several factors contributed to the lengthy prison sentences, including the vulnerability and age of the victims - they were between 14 and 18 at the time - and that undue influence and force was used upon them by the defendants. The victims were lured out of Mexico with promises of marriage and a better life in the United States, only to be forced into prostitution and held captive at the Plainfield brothel.

The women sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Faith S. Hochberg were among the first in the nation to be prosecuted under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, enacted in 2000 to combat child trafficking.

"The Department is aggressively seeking to root out and prosecute sex traffickers throughout the United States," said Attorney General John Ashcroft. "We are committed to pursuing traffickers and prosecuting them to the full extent of the law. These perpetrators create a world of fear, intimidation and cruelty that will not go unpunished."

"These young women were kept in a state of vile servitude," said Christie. "The humiliation they endured is beyond our comprehension and the psychological scars they carry are unfathomable. This District is irrevocably committed to pursuing those who traffic in human beings. This U.S. Attorney's Office stands firmly for the protection of human rights."

Antonia Jimenez-Calderon, 40, and Librada Jimenez-Calderon, 43, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of juveniles by force, fraud or coercion and conspiracy. Judge Hochberg sentenced both to 210 months in prison - the very top of the eligible range of 168 to 210 months, as determined by U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. There is no parole in the federal system, and the defendants can be expected to serve all or nearly all of that time in prison. Judge Hochberg also ordered each of them to pay a $5,000 fine.

At the sentencings, three of the four victims spoke through an interpreter before Judge Hochberg, who characterized the victims' treatment by the defendants as a "caged-animal existence." Rejecting defense arguments for more lenient treatment of the defendants, Judge Hochberg also said the victims were "horribly abused in a depraved and inhumane manner."

(See addendum for excerpts of the victims' statements in court.)

The Jimenez-Calderon sisters are among six defendants to plead guilty in connection with the conspiracy to bring undocumented Mexican girls to the United States. At 2:30 today, Sergio Farfan, 46, a former social worker at the Union County Jail until his arrest for obstructing the investigation, was sentenced later in the day to time served since his arrest - about 16 months. Farfan and the Jiminez-Calderon sisters have been in custody since their arrests in February 2002.

At their plea hearings in January, the Jimenez-Calderon sisters admitted that, once they had control of the girls in the Plainfield brothel, they trained them on how to be prostitutes and on the "rules of the house." The rules included not being allowed to speak to one another, to other prostitutes or to clients and not being allowed to use the telephone or have contact with anyone outside the house, unless supervised by them.

The sisters admitted that they kept the girls in prostitution seven days a week and collected all their earnings. They admitted that they used or threatened physical force on the girls to get them to obey the rules of the house.

According to court documents in the case, the teenage girls were lured from Mexico by two brothers of the Jimenez-Calderon sisters - Delfino Jimenez-Calderon, a/k/a "Armando," and Luis Jimenez-Calderon, a/k/a "Ulises." They too were charged in a superseding Indictment in September 2002 and remain fugitives from justice, possibly in Mexico.

Each of the young girls was approached in Mexico by either Delfino Jimenez-Calderon or Luis Jimenez-Calderon, according to charging documents. These defendants enticed them with gifts, told the girls they loved them and that they wanted to take them to the United States for marriage and a better life. They arrived first in Queens, N.Y. or Union City, N.J. before being taken to Union County.

Once here, however, they were virtually enslaved and forced to perform acts of prostitution at a rate of $35 per "John," often more than six times a day.

The federal sex trafficking probe followed a Feb. 22, 2002, raid by Plainfield, N.J. police at a suspected house of prostitution at 1212 ½ West Front Street.

Among the prostitutes arrested were the four Mexican juveniles, as well as adult women. All of the adults were released after posting bond on the local charges. The Jimenez-Calderon sisters both were arrested the day of the raid in Plainfield. The juveniles were kept initially in the Union County Juvenile Detention Center. They were subsequently relocated and remain at a facility specializing in treatment of abused juveniles, where they are also going to school and learning English.

Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as victims of a severe form of trafficking, they are allowed to apply for visas to remain in the United States and can have family members apply as well.

Later in the day, Farfan was sentenced to time served since his arrest - about 16 months - for his guilty plea in January to conspiracy to obstruct justice. Farfan admitted at his plea hearing that after the prostitution ring and the underage girls were discovered by authorities in Plainfield, he delivered fraudulent birth certificates to the Union County Juvenile Detention Center, showing that the four underage girls were all 21 years of age or older. Farfan was, at the time, a social worker at the Union County Jail.

The original criminal complaint charging Farfan alleged that he was a patron of the brothel and had paid for the services of two of the young girls. At his guilty plea, Farfan did not, and was not required to, admit engaging in prostitution with the girls.

Three other defendants await sentencing.

This was one of the first cases brought under the sex trafficking provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The Act, sponsored by New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, was passed by Congress to combat forms of coercion, such as psychological manipulation and intimidation, which traffickers use to hold their victims in conditions of servitude. It is the second case nationwide prosecuted under the new provision prohibiting sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion.

The case was prosecuted jointly by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert M. Holmsen of the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, and Trial Attorneys Hilary Axam and Anne Milgram of the Criminal Section of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.

Christie credited officers with the Plainfield Police Department, under the direction of Chief Edward Santiago; Special Agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge John P. Torres; Special Agents of the Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge James Vanderberg; officers with the Elizabeth Police Department, under the direction of Chief Jack Simon; and detectives with the Union County Prosecutor's Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Theodore J.Romankow, with bringing the case against the defendants.

Individuals can report other cases of trafficking or slavery to the Trafficking In Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force complaint line, at 1-888-428-7581. Additional information about the Task Force can be found at:

Excerpts from Victims' Statements

Following are excerpts of statements in court, made through an interpreter, from three of the four victims at the Jimenez-Calderon sentencings. As in court and the charging documents, the victims' are identified here only by their initials:

M.R.H. - "They treated us very badly. They would fool us and deceive us. If we were to tell the truth, we were going to go to jail for the rest of our lives.... I didn't like it when she would call me stupid, because I'm not stupid, and now they can see I'm not stupid, and I can do a lot of things."

J.M.R. - "I am not very well as a result of what was done to me."

S.A.H. - "It's their fault that I lost my friends, my parents.... My story is very long. It took me about a year to reach my parents.... They (the defendants) don't repent for everything they did to me, for all the damage they did to me. They hit me.... They thought they were bigshots. I tried to defend myself but I couldn't. I tried to escape...."