This is a great story about Ann Johnson, the Democratic candidate in HD134 last year, who is now back with the District Attorney’s office fighting against pimps and traffickers who prey on kids.
Ann Johnson
Johnson, a 39-year-old juvenile law attorney, is fluent in the language of the street, rattling off facts about Houston’s tracks, where pimps take prostitutes to pick up “tricks” or dates with johns.
She talks about “gorilla pimps” who control prostitutes with violence and “mack pimps” who use flattery, safety and the promise of love to lure prostitutes.
After cementing the relationship with sex, the mack asks the prostitute to help the “family” by selling sex.
That fluency means she can talk to minors about what they’re going through. And she can also explain that world to a jury.
“It’s such a foreign world, a hidden world and Ann knows about it,” said Jen Falk, a prosecutor who helped put Kentish in prison. “She brings such a unique background, especially in talking to victims who typically just get lost in the system.”
[…]
Although domestic child prostitution is not typically considered human trafficking, prosecuting those cases is a top priority and part of a three-pronged attack for newly elected District Attorney Mike Anderson.
“Houston is one of the top five cities in the world for human trafficking,” Anderson said. “We’re going to be busting the people who see this as their business and the mid-management, which are the pimps, and the johns as well.”
Anderson said he expects to see more cases filed against Houston’s cantinas and massage parlors where men and women are brought to Houston from all over the world to work as sex slaves.
“Just as sad, there are runaways here that are recruited with promises of a job or safety and they’re made to be prostitutes,” Anderson said.
After he decided to make trafficking one of his administration’s top priorities, Anderson set out to recruit Johnson. He hired her at a typical chief’s salary of $110,000 a year and said she may soon be creating an entire new trafficking division at the office.
“She’s extremely well respected in that area, she’s passionate about it, and she’s very good at what she does,” Anderson said. “She has a reputation at the courthouse.”
She is also well-known after an unsuccessful campaign last year to unseat incumbent Republican Sarah Davis for House District 134. A Democrat, Johnson lost the race but was widely supported by courthouse insiders, including Chris Tritico, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association.
“Every dealing I’ve had with her, when she was a prosecutor before and as a private practitioner has been very positive,” Tritico said. “I think the world of her.”
I had the pleasure of getting to know Ann during her candidacy in HD134, and she is indeed a fine person. I have no doubt that she will do a lot of good in this role. Kudos to Mike Anderson for hiring her, and best of luck to her and everyone in her division for the work they do.