INDIANAPOLIS- A federal jury has found Jacquez “Joc” Brown, 31, of Chicago, guilty of Sex Trafficking of a Minor, Sexual Exploitation of a Child, and three counts of Distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material. The verdict was returned on October 15, 2026, following a three-day trial. According to court documents and evidence introduced at trial, on December 14, 2022, Vigo County 911 received an emergency text message reporting that a 15-year-old female was being prostituted by a 28-year-old male, later identified as Brown, at the Super 8 Motel in Terre Haute.Terre Haute Police Department (THPD) officers located the minor victim in a motel room with Brown. The subsequent investigation revealed that Brown compelled the minor to engage in commercial sex acts for his financial benefit and had taken a sexually explicit photograph of her during the trafficking that he sent to numerous individuals to entice them to pay for sex with the minor victim. Investigators also found multiple advertisements depicting the minor victim that included nude photographs of the victim and a phone number associated with Brown.Despite police intervention on December 14, Brown continued arranging commercial sex acts involving the minor.The jury received testimony from law enforcement officers who encountered Brown and the minor victim; reviewed text message exchanges that demonstrated the trafficking activity as it occurred; heard from a digital forensic expert who conclusively linked Brown to the creation and transmission of those messages and to the device used to capture and distribute the illicit image; and listened to first‑hand accounts of the sex‑trafficking conduct from friends and associates of Brown and the minor victim who personally experienced the events.Homeland Security Investigations and Terre Haute Police Department investigated this case. Chief U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney, II presided over the trial and will determine Brown’s sentence at a later date.U.S. Attorney Wheeler thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Carolyn Haney and MaryAnn Mindrum, who are prosecuting this case. ###
Source: U.S. Department of Justice