Turlock police arrest Stockton man on charges of sex trafficking of Ceres teen

A Stockton man has been charged with the human trafficking of a 16-year-old Ceres girl he got to know through social media.

The girl told police she was taken to a motel in Turlock where, over a two-day period, she had sex with as many as 10 men. She said the men paid about $800 but that the suspect, 19-year-old Michael Odis Johnson III, took all but $50, according to an arrest affidavit.

The investigation began in January 2016 when the girl’s mother contacted Turlock police after the girl was dropped off at home by Johnson, following the nights at the Travelodge Hotel on Glenwood Avenue in Turlock.

The girl told police she had begun communicating with Johnson a few months prior on Instagram and Snapchat, according to the affidavit.

She said Johnson asked her if she was interested in making some money as an escort by posting an ad on an online classified website. She said she dismissed the idea at the time.

On Jan. 19, 2016, the girl decided to ditch school. Johnson, along with a woman identified in the affidavit only as Cecee, picked her up at Ceres High School and took her to Stockton. She told police she knew Cecee to be a prostitute.

The girl said during that time they smoked marijuana and she heard Johnson and Cecee talking about posting an ad on backpage.com. She later learned that they had posted an ad using a picture of her, according to the affidavit.

Five days later, the girl got into a fight with her mother, who reportedly was in an abusive relationship and did not have the means to get out, according to the affidavit. The girl said she decided she wanted to make some money so they could leave the abusive relationship involving her stepfather.

According to the affidavit, Johnson, along with two other men, picked up the girl at a McDonald’s in Ceres and drove her to the Travelodge in Turlock.

The girl said she and Johnson agreed to post an escort ad and that she would have sex for money. Johnson posted the ad and men started texting his number to arrange meetings at the Travelodge, according to the affidavit.

Johnson instructed the girl to ask the men for a “donation” before having sex with them and to put the money in a drawer, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit says the girl had sex and oral sex with the first man, for which he paid $100. After the man left, Johnson came into the room and took the money, the girl told police.

After that incident, the girl said, “she realized the severity of what she was doing and did not want to do it anymore,” the affidavit says. “Victim said she was there all alone and was too scared to do or say anything to (Johnson).”

She told police that eight to 10 more sex acts similar to the first occurred over the next two days. She said Johnson would not let her leave the room and that she felt she would be hurt if she tried. He would not provide her any food and the only thing she had to drink during that time was water from the sink, according to the affidavit.

She said on the second day Cecee came by and told her what she needed to do with the men, such as not to ask for money but simply to hold out her hand.

The next day, they left the hotel and Johnson gave the girl $50, according to the affidavit.

The detective on the case, Jason Tosta, got search warrants for Johnson’s cellphone, Instagram and Snapchat accounts and surveillance video from the motel and a gas station to which the girl and Johnson went before she was taken back home.

In May, while the investigation continued, Johnson contacted Tosta after getting an email from his cellphone carrier regarding the search on his phone. During the conversation, Johnson contradicted himself multiple times about what he was doing in Turlock during those two days in January, who he was with and how he knew the victim.

According to the affidavit, Johnson first told Tosta he went to Turlock to party with two of his friends, identified only as Emilio and Angel. He denied that the girl was with them until Tosta told him surveillance footage proved she was.

Johnson originally denied that he’d posted the escort ad, but when Tosta told him the IP address of the posting came back to his phone, he said he did it for Cecee because she didn’t know how and did not have an email address to do the post, according to the affidavit.

When Tosta pushed him further and inquired about his Instagram and Snapchat accounts, which suggest “he thinks he is a pimp,” Johnson contradicted himself again by saying Cecee was the one who “knows how to do all these things,” the affidavit says.

Johnson was arrested in French Camp earlier this month and on Thursday was brought to the Stanislaus County jail, where he is being held on $1 million bail, said Turlock police spokesman Officer Steve Rodrigues.

Rodrigues said the investigation is ongoing and others could be charged in the case.

This story was originally published January 24, 2017 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Turlock police arrest Stockton man on charges of sex trafficking of Ceres teen."