Lance Everson (via Orleans Parish District Attorney)
For details, see the full news release from prosecutors below:
District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Tuesday (March 20) won the conviction of a New Orleans man involved in the trafficking of underage prostitutes in the city.
Lance Everson, 39, pleaded guilty as charged to several offenses minutes before his scheduled trial in the Section C courtroom of Criminal District Judge Ben Willard. Everson will serve 15 years in state prison under terms of an agreement in which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced thusly:
Two counts of child sex trafficking (15 years each)
One count of second-degree kidnapping (15 years)
One count of aggravated battery (10 years)
One count of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile (10 years)
One count each of possession with intent to distribute heroin, cocaine, MDMA (ecstacy) and marijuana (15 years each)
One count of possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone (5 years)
One count each of possession of cocaine, hydrocodone, diazepam, benzylpiperazine and tramadol (5 years each)
One count of simple battery (6 months)
One count of marijuana possession (15 days)Willard ordered all sentences to be served concurrently. Everson also will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
Louisiana State Police troopers initially arrested Everson in November 2013 on suspicion of drug possession, after finding him with a bag of narcotics and a 14-year-old girl in his car outside a fast-food restaurant on Carrollton Avenue near Hollygrove.
After being freed on bond, Everson was arrested again in October 2014, after a 17-year-old girl reported to New Orleans police that she was working as a prostitute for Everson, who served as her pimp. The girl told police that when she tried to end the arrangement, Everson beat her with a metal baseball bat and his fists. A search warrant executed at Everson’s residence revealed more narcotics and digital scales covered with drug residue.
Louisiana State Police Sgt. Justin Berry and FBI special agent Michael Forrester launched a child sex trafficking investigation based on the information provided by the 17-year-old victim. They located the younger girl who was with Everson at his 2013 arrest and discovered she also had been trafficked as an underage prostitute by the man.
Assistant District Attorneys Irena Zajickova and Arthur Mitchell IV prosecuted the case.
