SLO County judge sentences pimp to 15 years to life in prison
May 21, 2021
Lucion Banks
A San Luis Obispo County judge sentenced Lucion Lee Edwards Banks of Sacramento on Friday to 15 years to life in state prison for human trafficking.
The conviction resulted from a run-of-the-mill traffic enforcement stop by San Luis Obispo City Police Officer Quenten Rouse, which quickly revealed evidence that Banks was involved in trafficking a young survivor for commercial sexual exploitation.
On Oct. 5, 2018, Rouse conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle driven by Banks, 37. The Oakland teen was a passenger in Banks’ vehicle.
At the conclusion of a 12-day trial, a jury found Banks guilty of trafficking the teen survivor by use of force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace or threat of unlawful injury.
The teen, identified in court as Jane Doe, attended the sentencing hearing and provided a powerful description of how the crime has impacted her life, focusing on her commitment to a better future.
“I am glad to say, I feel no more fear,” she said. “I am going to graduate high school. I am going to beauty school. I feel like if the San Luis Obispo Police Department did not make that stop, that he would have kept hitting me and using me.”
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