Leah Rogers - Game Over: The Story Behind a Sex-Trafficking Victim

When Leah first told me that she was writing a book, I thought, H ow wonderful! What a great way for her to heal and let it all out. I truly just viewed her writing as a cathartic way to work through things after all that had happened to her. When she actually presented me with a printed copy of what she had written, I was overwhelmed wit h pride. She actually did it! Then she asked me to write the for ewo rd. WOW, how honored I was, I am, to be asked to do this and be a part of her hist o ry , but more importantly, her future.

My name is Christi. I am a detective with the Phoenix Police Department and part of the FBI H u man Trafficking T ask Force in Phoenix, Arizona. Leah came into my life as a suspect in a case, not usually ho w two people become acquainted. I r e ceived a tip from Oregon detectives of a juvenile working as a prostitute in Oregon. The detectives believed she had been moved to Phoenix by a pimp . They provided some information for her ads on backpage.com . The Vice Unit called that ad in an attemp t to loc ate her. Instead of a juvenile, a young a dult woman was the respondent. After arresting that young lady and talking with her, she admitted to knowing and working with the juvenile and other a dult women in a pimps stable. She told us horrific stories of her person al experiences with this pimp. Furthermore, the young lady provided us with i n formation about Leah, the bottom girl , and stated that the pimp went by Jay or JLexx . She also stated that the girls in the stable had just had a big fight in Phoenix and that JLexx sent the juvenile to Califo r nia and Leah and another girl to Texas to separate them.

That young lady agreed to assist us in rescuing the juvenile as well as creating a case against JLexx . She informed us that the pimp had recently been shot numerous times in Oakland, CA , and that he was currently in the hospital, paralyzed from the waist down. Apparently there was a bit of a pimp territory war out on the track. She stated tha t he was still running the show, sending out orders through his cousin and Leah from his hospital bed. She agreed to create a ruse and call the pimp, introdu c ing me and another female detective as 17 year old and 18 year old girls th at she was recruiting for him. This is not uncommon. A pimp is always recruiting. After a girl works for him long enough, he expects her t o assist in recruiting as well.

We spent the next couple of days texting and talking to JLexx on the phone. During these conve r sations he laid it on thick, explaining all that he had to offer as a pimp and why we should work for him. He was a charmer, a fast talker, a car salesman, a businessman. He laid out his plan for us. He told us the rules and how business worked. Sometimes he was agg ressive, but mostly pleasant. He talked a big game and presented himself as a larger than life character. After a few days of conversing, he told us that he was sending his bottom and another girl to pick us up in a black Mercedes and drive us to Oa k land to meet him in person. He stated that we would immediately be gin to work for him out there. He said that his Mercedes was in the shop being worked on in Phoenix and that the girls had to go there to r e trieve it and then would pick us up.

We met the girls (Leah being one of them) at the shop and placed eve ryone under arrest. We were able to locate the juvenile in California and get her picked up as well as place the pimp under arrest as soon as he w as released from the hospital. He was later transferred to Phoenix.