Jury finds man guilty of raping, forcing Canadian woman into prostitution

By Dave Toplikar

Thursday, April 14, 2011 | 4:53 p.m.

A Clark County District Court jury has found a Las Vegas man guilty of repeatedly raping and forcing a Canadian tourist to act as a prostitute in early January in Las Vegas.

After deliberating for several hours, the jury found Charles Ford, 49, guilty of one count of pandering, one count of living off the earnings of a prostitute and three counts of sexual assault.

The jury announced its verdict Thursday afternoon before District Judge Valerie Adair. The jurors said they were hung on four other remaining counts of sexual assault charges against Ford.

Ford was taken back into custody, where he will await sentencing at 9:30 a.m. June 16 before Adair.

"We are very happy with the verdict," Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck said outside the courtroom, where she hugged the victim, and her fellow prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Dena Renetti.

"It was a very just result. These are difficult cases. It was a difficult case to try and the jury did the right thing," Fleck said. "We are very, very happy."

Fleck said the remaining four sexual assault charges that the jury couldn't reach a decision on will be dismissed.

The trial, which lasted three days before going to the jury about 5 p.m. Wednesday, featured graphic details and photos involving the sexual assault on the victim.

It also dealt with the subculture of pimps and prostitutes, the language they use and how a pimp gets psychological control over a prostitute through fear, physical violence and humiliation.

Although the victim was named in court records and testified, the Sun has not used her name during the trial.

The victim, who was from Alberta, Canada, gave different accounts of her story at her preliminary hearing and at the trial.

At her preliminary hearing, she left the impression that the first time she had ever acted as a prostitute was in Las Vegas at the coercion of Ford.

However, at her trial, more of her history came out — that she had been a prostitute as a teenager, had stopped for many years as an adult and had raised a family, but had gone back to prostitution while she was sightseeing in Los Angeles.

The victim said she drove to the United States and entered Washington state without a passport. Then she drove to Los Angeles, where she began working as a prostitute during the latter part of December.

At that point, she met another prostitute along Sunset Boulevard, Annette Dennis. The two women struck up a conversation and the victim agreed to drive Dennis to Las Vegas.

Then when they got to Las Vegas, Dennis' boyfriend, who was known as "T," introduced the Canadian woman to his friend, friend "Charlie Mac," the name Ford was using.

Prosecutors say that through threats and intimidation and with information gathered by Dennis, Ford coerced the Canadian woman into working as a prostitute for him, making about $2,500 for him over two nights.

Al Beas, a Metro vice detective who is an expert in the subculture of prostitution, told the jury about intimidation and psychological techniques pimps use to get a prostitute under their control.

He also said it was easier for a pimp to get a woman who had previously been a prostitute under his control than a woman who had never sold sexual favors. He said a former prostitute was "almost like an addict being put back on drugs."

Fleck explained to the jury that those psychological techniques were the same ones used against the Canadian woman — shame, fear, humiliation and isolation.

The victim said Ford gathered personal information about her, got access to her driver's license and her laptop computer, isolated her, monitored her phone calls and e-mails and sexually assaulted her from Jan. 1 to Jan. 3.

Although the woman initially refused to "break" to Ford as her pimp, he told her he had information on her adult children and they would suffer the consequences if she didn't comply.

The victim, who testified Tuesday, said the sexual assaults took place in two rooms at the Travelodge, 5075 Koval Lane, in Las Vegas.

She said she was forced to act as a prostitute at truck stops the first two nights, made $2,500 on those two nights and was forced to give the money to Ford. She was ordered to go alone to the Las Vegas Strip for the third night, but that she would be watched.

While at the Luxor, the woman had sex with a Canadian man, who she decided not to charge. After that, she said she realized she could not return to Ford's room at the Travelodge, so she went to Hooter's, where she found a security guard who put her in contact with Metro police.

Metro vice detective David Mason arrested Ford in the same room where the victim said Ford repeatedly sexually assaulted her. Her laptop computer was found in one of his duffel bags and some of her personal items were also in his room.

During testimony on Wednesday, a sexual assault nurse examiner from University Medical Center testified and explained graphic images of bruising and hemorrhaging that had occurred to the woman's body, saying that they were the result of rough sex.

However, Fords' attorney, Ken Frizzell, said in his closing arguments that there was no evidence that the injuries received were from the defendant except for her testimony. Frizzell said they could have been caused by having sex with between 15 to 30 men over three days.