An Atlanta rapper was found guilty on multiple racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
John Michael Gibson, known in the local music scene as Ca$h Out, was found guilty on several counts, including rape, pimping, and aggravated sodomy. Prosecutors in Fulton County claimed he, his mother, Linda Smith, and cousin, Tyrone Taylor, operated a sex trafficking enterprise for several years in Atlanta.
“This has been going on for seven years,” said Fulton County prosecutor Earnell Winfrey, according to WSB-TV. “This ain’t just straight pimping—this is trafficking.”
Gibson was also found guilty of two additional counts of sex trafficking but not on a third count. The jury also acquitted him of a sexual servitude count, aggravated assault, and a place of prostitution.
The rapper was arrested and detained during a prostitution sting in June 2019. He initially faced even more charges, including aggravated assault, simple battery, human trafficking, pandering, and obstruction of law enforcement officers, according to jail records obtained by Atlanta News First.
The verdicts came after a weeks-long trial over whether the defendants
used their record company, Pyrez Music Group LLC, for sex trafficking. Prosecutors claimed that the trio kept the women in a “house of horrors,” using force, coercion, and deception to lure and trap the women.Victims of their enterprise claimed that they were forced into prostitution by Gibson while his mother and partner took their earnings. Witnesses also recalled being trafficked by the two men after being raped by them. Another said she was only granted food if she engaged in sexual acts.
Following the trial,
Smith was found guilty of one trafficking count, evading two more for trafficking and prostitution. Taylor, however, received a guilty verdict on all counts except for pimping. Gibson’s attorneys tried to argue that his record label had no connection to the trafficking. All three defendants were found guilty on racketeering charges.Prosecutors used phone call logs and text messages about the sexual transactions to prove their case. The call from an incarcerated Gibson detailed him asking his mother to meet with a victim to prevent her from speaking with police.
“Sure, they were pimping, for sure,” added Winfrey. “But force and cohesion is what makes it trafficking.”
All three will be sentenced by a Fulton County judge on July 21 at 10 a.m.
RELATED CONTENT: Diddy Fans Celebrate RICO Verdict By Dousing Themselves In Baby Oil