PRESS RELEASE: Fairborn, Ohio, Man, Thuron L. Hammersley Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 8, 2013

Fairborn, Ohio, Man Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking

Thuron L. Hammersley, 44, of Fairborn, Ohio, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to one count of transporting an individual from Ohio to Kentucky for purposes of engaging in prostitution. He also admitted to enticing a woman to travel from Kentucky to Ohio to engage in prostitution and obstructing the investigation into his activities.

Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice; Kevin R. Cornelius, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Cincinnati Field Office; Richard Biehl, Chief, Dayton, Ohio, Police Department; and John Sedlak, Chief, Miamisburg, Ohio Police Department announced the plea entered today before U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Black.

According to court documents, Hammersley met the women on the website plentyoffish.com and placed ads for them on the internet site backpage.com, offering the women as “escorts.” He directed the men who responded to the ads to motels in Kentucky and Ohio, where they engaged in sexual activity for money. He also enticed another woman to travel from Kentucky to the Dayton area to engage in prostitution. Hammersley enticed her by offering her employment, paying for her bus ticket and paying for condoms. Hammersley collected the money paid by the men.

The plea agreement includes a recommended sentence of 78 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the court will review a pre-sentence investigation report before determining whether or not to accept the recommended sentence.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Dayton and Miamisburg police departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vipal Patel and Alex R. Sistla and Department of Justice Trial Attorney Betsy Biffl prosecuted the case.