LOS ANGELES — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - California, Central), published as received.
LOS ANGELES – A South Los Angeles man was arraigned today on a four-count federal indictment charging him with violently sex trafficking two teenage girls on the Figueroa Corridor, plying at least one of them with narcotics, and with attempting to kidnap a woman at a mobile phone store after she escaped his apartment while he was physically attacking her.
Derrick Harrison Enrico Brooks, Jr., 31, of Baldwin Village, is charged with two counts of sex trafficking of children by force, fraud, or coercion, one count of distribution of controlled substances to a person under 21, and one count of attempted kidnapping.
Brooks pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment today in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. His trial is scheduled for December 1.
Last month a federal magistrate judge ordered him detained without bond.
According to the complaint, indictment, and other court documents, in November 2025, Brooks sex trafficked a 15-year-old girl – identified in court documents as “Minor Victim 1.” Brooks and this victim traveled from California to Colorado in his green limousine for commercial sex work. Brooks demanded that she earn $1,000 per day, physically assaulted her several times, and at one point, caused the victim to think she was going to die from his physical violence.
Brooks posted an advertisement of her on the Craigslist website.
Minor Victim 1 returned to Los Angeles and escaped from Brooks while working on the Figueroa Corridor, a 3.5-mile stretch of Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles that is notorious for prostitution activity.
In January and February of 2026, Brooks trafficked a 17-year-old girl, identified in court documents as “Minor Victim 2,” who also worked on the Figueroa Corridor. Brooks physically assaulted this victim as well and knowingly distributed Ecstasy to her.
In August 2026, Brooks assaulted and attempted to kidnap a woman – identified in the indictment as “Victim 3” – in a mobile phone store in Baldwin Village. Victim 3 had fled Brooks’s nearby apartment after he choked her and punched her in the face.
Two weeks after the attempted kidnapping, law enforcement arrested Brooks in connection with that incident.
An indictment merely contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
If convicted of all charges, Brooks would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The FBI is investigating this matter with assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department, Pomona Police Department, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Assistant United States Attorneys Chelsea Norell and Mirelle Raza of the Major Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.
