Opinion ID: 1434186
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Pseudo-Count Enhancement for Commercial Sex Acts Involving Multiple Victims

Text: Young conspired to use the facilities of interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution. Her offense was thus one involving commercial sex acts, i.e., those for which payment is rendered. See U.S.S.G. § 2G1.1, comment. (n.1), and 18 U.S.C. § 1591(e)(3). Where such an offense involves more than one victim, section 2G1.1(d)(1) of the Guidelines instructs the court to calculate the offense level as if the promoting of a commercial sex act... in respect to each victim had been contained in a separate count of conviction. Pursuant to Application Note 5 of the guideline, any person who is transported, persuaded, induced, enticed, or coerced to engage in ... a commercial sex act ... is to be treated as a separate victim. Id., comment (n.5). The district court found that during Young's tenure at the spa, there were at least four and likely seven to eight women other than Young who provided sexual services to customers, R. 293 at 19, and each of those women constituted a victim for purposes of the Guideline, R. 293 at 19-20. The court also found that Young, in her role as the spa's manager, had effectively enticed these women into performing commercial sex acts by confining their income to the tips they received for providing sexual massages. R. 293 at 21-22. The court therefore calculated Young's offense level as if she had been convicted of one pseudo count of promoting a commercial sex act in addition to the one actual count of conviction. The fictitious second count resulted in a two-level increase in Young's offense level pursuant to section 3D1.4. The district court's findings that the spa's masseuses were victims and that Young was responsible for enticing them into performing commercial sex acts are factual in nature, and we review them for clear error. See United States v. Julian, 427 F.3d 471, 488-89 (7th Cir.2005). Young protests the enhancement, contending that in the absence of evidence that she coerced the masseuses into engaging in sexual activity or controlled their method of payment, it was improper to increase her offense level simply because the masseuses were given a financial incentive to give sexual massages. Young points out that Kim testified that she (Kim) kept not only the tips they received for sexual massages, but also one-half of the entrance fees charged to her customers. Consequently, the tips for sexual gratification were not necessarily the masseuses' sole source of payment. Young herself also testified that it was common for spas not to pay masseuses a wage and instead compensate them from the fees they collected from customers. She adds that it was Thompson and not she who established the manner and amount of payment for massages. The district court did not clearly err in finding that Young was responsible for enticing the spa's masseuses into performing sexual massages. That Young did not coerce the masseuses is, as Young all but concedes, beside the point, as the guideline expressly reaches those who entice others into performing commercial sex acts as well as those who persuade, induce or coerce others into doing so. And the evidence supports the court's finding that the women were enticed to engage in sexual massages. Even if the tips that the masseuses kept were not the sole source of their compensation, they nonetheless amounted to a substantial portion of that compensation. And given that seventy-five percent or more of the spa's customers were seeking sexual gratification, it is doubtful that a masseuse who refused to provide that gratification would have lasted long at the spa. This was enough to establish that the masseuses were enticed into engaging in sexual activity for pay, and thus to support the finding that the masseuses were victims for purposes of the Guideline. Young's role as a manager or supervisor of the spa's criminal activity in turn supports the court's finding that she was responsible for the enticement. Granted, Young did not set up the spa's fee structure and method of compensating the masseuses. But, as the individual who for six months assigned masseuses to customers, collected the spa's proceeds, made sure that the spa's business was accurately documented in a ledger for Thompson, and kept the spa running on a day-to-day basis, Young played a significant role in perpetuating both the illicit activity taking place at the spa and the means by which the masseuses were compensated for that activity. The district court could reasonably infer that Young herself enticed the masseuses to engage in commercial sexual activity.