16-Year Sentence For Man Who Promoted Sex Trafficking In Woodbury

WOODBURY, MN — A Washington County judge handed down a prison sentence of more than 16 years for a man convicted of promoting prostitution and sex trafficking in Woodbury, according to officials.

James Williams, 42, of Brooklyn Park, was sentenced Friday to serve 201 months after he pleaded guilty last year on the morning his trial was due to begin, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said in a news release.

Williams was arrested in October 2020 by the East Metro Human Trafficking Task Force after an investigation into a stolen wallet at a Woodbury motel led police to suspect he was promoting prostitution, according to the criminal complaint against Williams.

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Police searched Williams’ phone and found “numerous conversations … involving commercial sex” between him and a woman with whom he was in an “on-and-off relationship,” the complaint states.

Williams “would often provide transportation to commercial sex appointments, collect money derived from commercial sex acts, and (was) involved in the operational control of (the woman’s) commercial sex activity,” the complaint alleged.

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“The text messages illustrate that the defendant exercises control and uses force to compel (her) to continue to provide money and narcotics from commercial sex,” the complaint states.

Williams was charged after his arrest with five counts of violating a no-contact order and one count of tampering with a witness after police alleged he called the woman more than 30 times while being held at the Washington County Jail in Stillwater.

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Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said he was “satisfied” with the 16-year sentence for Williams, “given what he did to people.”

The sentence “may seem high to some, but the defendant admitted to extreme exploitation of human beings for his own profit,” Orput said.

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