Prostitutes Smuggled Into U.S., Court Told

She was a young mother from Mexico, so desperate for money that she was willing to travel illegally to the United States to work as a prostitute.

Yolanda Cruz, 20, the first witness to testify against one of the alleged participants in a Long Beach prostitution ring uncovered by police in January, told a U.S. District Court jury Wednesday that she was performing sex acts for $60 several times a day.

She identified the defendant, Vu Tieng-Phou, as the man who collected money from her clients, kept records of the transactions and communicated with her, mostly through hand gestures. Cruz, who speaks only Spanish, testified through a translator.

Phou has been charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of harboring illegal immigrants. If convicted on both, he could receive 20 years in prison, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Wendy O. Clendening.

Last year, the ring recruited several women and girls from Mexico to work as prostitutes and smuggled them across the border, prosecutors said. The women and girls lived and worked together in various houses in the Los Angeles area, including one in Long Beach.

Cruz said she was enticed into prostitution by promises that she would earn $15 per customer, which equaled her weekly salary as a cleaning woman in Mexico.

Defense attorney Steven M. Cron sought to show that Cruz’s testimony might be affected by the fact that federal prosecutors agreed not to bring charges against her in exchange for her cooperation.

The second man charged in connection with the ring, Sammy Cheung, pleaded guilty Monday to charges of conspiracy and harboring illegal immigrants, Clendening said. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 27.

Earlier Wednesday, Judge A. Howard Matz denied a motion by prosecutors and a public defender to close the court for a 17-year-old witness, who had also worked as a prostitute for the ring. The attorneys had argued that the girl might be too intimidated to testify truthfully and clearly in front of a courtroom audience.

But Matz responded that closing the court was “not fair to the defense and inconsistent with rights of the press.” The teenager is expected to testify today.