Sufficiency of Evidence

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Eugene Wearing

Case No.: 16-3312

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sufficiency of Evidence

Hoping to earn some money as a pimp, Eugene Wearing recruited a 15‐year‐old acquaintance, KV #1, to earn money as a prostitute. He posted a Craigslist ad with her photo and twice tried to arrange a rendezvous with a client. But both assignations fell through, and soon afterward KV #1 had second thoughts and alerted her mother, who called the authorities. At a bench trial Wearing was convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1591, which makes sex trafficking of children a federal crime if done “in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.” In this appeal Wearing challenges only the sufficiency of the evidence. He argues that the government was required to, but did not, prove two critical points: (1) that KV #1 had engaged in a “commercial sex act,” and (2) that his recruitment of the victim (as opposed to the scheme as a whole) affected commerce. We find no merit in either argument, and so we affirm the conviction.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.