The victim said James Dews was the pimp and she was trafficked at hotels in the Tyler and Longview area, the affidavit read.
TYLER, Texas — A Tyler man and woman have been indicted on trafficking charges for accusations of working together to prostitute a teenager multiple times in East Texas this past summer.
James Emmitt Dews III and Hannah Nicole Moore, both of Tyler, were both indicted on trafficking charges on Oct. 3, according to criminal records. Dews is facing a second degree felony of trafficking a person and Moore is charged with a first degree felony of trafficking a child or disabled person.
They were arrested on Aug. 1 following a joint investigation between the Tyler Police Department and the Office of the Texas Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Unit, North Texas Human Trafficking Taskforce.
The victim’s mother told police she saw items related to sex workers and sex trafficking on her child’s phone. After picking up the child at a Tyler hotel, the detective reviewed evidence indicating the teen was being sex trafficked, according to an arrest affidavit.
In the teen’s phone, police said they found messages with contacts, who were later identified as Dews and Moore, about meetups for sex in exchange for money and requests for sexually explicit photos, the affidavit said.
In the messages, Dews wrote to the teen that he would introduce her to “hustle game.” The detective said the term “game” refers to prostitution. He also told the victim that they would be “working” in the East Texas area, including Tyler, Longview and Nacogdoches.
Evidence showed that Moore would coordinate “meetups” for several individuals for the victim. In an interview, the victim said they met Dews through a dating app and the teen met Moore later on. The victim said Dews was the pimp and she was trafficked at hotels in the Tyler and Longview area, the affidavit read.
Investigators found conversations between the victim and Moore about trafficking meetups and text threads with CashApp account names.
Dews has a hearing set for Jan. 23 and Moore will have a court date on Jan. 13. Both hearings will be in the 114th District Court, records show.
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