Police seek other victims of alleged pimp of 13-year-old
Los Angeles police are asking for the public’s help to identify any additional victims of an alleged pimp accused of kidnapping and prostituting a 13-year-old girl.
Leroy Bragg, 34, was arrested Tuesday in the backyard of a Hawthorne home after a police chase, authorities said. He was arraigned at Los Angeles County Superior Court and charged with human trafficking, kidnapping and burglary. Bragg pleaded not guilty and is being held on $1.3-million bail.
Capt. Ann Young, commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Vice Division, said the charges stem from Bragg’s alleged abduction of a 13-year-old Hawthorne girl who was forced into prostitution. The girl, whose identity is being withheld because she is a minor, was found by police Friday.
Young offered only scant details on the investigation but said police believe Bragg also abducted and pimped a 14-year-old girl from Upland. “These are still babies,” she said. “Prostitution is so dangerous, so traumatizing. To think that there are people out there who will steal the life away from a young child.”
The Upland girl’s father, an Irvine construction worker, declined to discuss the case, saying police had told him not to speak to the media. But he did say his daughter is home safely.
If convicted, it would be a third strike for Bragg, who has previous convictions for residential burglary, according to documents in the case.
Investigators believe Bragg victimized other young women and have asked anyone with information to call Det. Hector Sanchez at (213) 486-0957.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
