Numerous Girls - Various ages/ Accused: James Mozie and Laschell Harris - Oakland Park FL

Oakland Park couple charged with sex trafficking of minor girls


James Mozie Laschell Harris

By Linda Trischitta and Barbara Hijek ~ Sun Sentinel

Thursday, May 19, 2011


A green porch light drew men to a private home in Oakland Park known as the Boom Boom Room, where federal agents say children were sold for sex.

At 1 a.m. Saturday, a task force led by the FBI arrested James "Red" Mozie, 34, of Lauderhill, and his girlfriend, Laschell "Shelly" Harris, 37, of Oakland Park.

The couple faces charges of recruiting, providing and maintaining minors for commercial sex in the house Harris rented at 2140 NW 29th St., west of Interstate 95 and Northwest 21st Avenue and south of Oakland Park Boulevard.

Mozie and Harris are in the Broward County main jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale and have detention hearings in federal court set for May 25. If convicted of the child trafficking charge, they could face sentences of 10 years to life in prison.

According to the federal criminal complaint, an investigation began in March after a tip to Broward County Crime Stoppers about minor girls working as prostitutes at the residence.

Agents interviewed a 16-year-old girl identified as A.M., who said she sold her body at the house one Friday night in April after she and her 14-year-old cousin, identified as M.J., were dropped off there by two of M.J.'s male friends.

The complaint states that Mozie brought the girls into the house. A.M. told investigators there were 10 to 15 women and girls — some naked, some in their underwear — who were dancing before a group of men in the living room.

She also told agents that she recognized two of the girls, including one from her class at school, and said that people were drinking and smoking marijuana while adult pornography aired on a big-screen TV.

Men would enter the house and go directly to the kitchen to pay Harris, according to the complaint, while other men acted as security.

A.M. filled out an application form that asked for personal information, such as date of birth, as well as her willingness to perform various sex acts. She told investigators that Mozie knew she was 16.

After smoking marijuana that she believes was laced with something else, A.M. was promised tips for dancing in her underwear and 70 percent of any payments for sex, the complaint states.

Customers were given a 30-minute timer and a condom. The teenager told investigators she was paid $240 for the night, after she performed sex first with one man, then with another man and her cousin, M.J.
A.M. also had sex with Mozie, who told her it was part of her orientation, according to the complaint that says the teenager cried when she realized what she had done.

She told investigators that M.J. was paid about $290 and that Harris tracked payments to each girl and stored cash in a small safe in the kitchen, where there was also a computer.

Armed with a federal search warrant, officers found two 17-year-old girls inside the house with two women and 12 men, the complaint states.

Also collected during the raid: egg timers; boxes of Magnum condoms; many cameras, DVDs and CDs; computers; a roll of tickets; job applications; clear plastic bags holding a leafy green substance; several hundred dollars in cash, and green and red light bulbs.

The arrests were made by members of the Minor Vice Task Force, a group led by the FBI that includes officers from Miami Dade Police, Miami Beach Police, City of Miami Police, the Broward Sheriff's Office and Fort Lauderdale Police. The task force is part of the federal Innocence Lost initiative to investigate crimes against children.

FBI Special Agent Michael Leverock said that no minors were arrested.

Adriane Reesey, chairwoman of the Broward County Human Trafficking Coalition, was pleased to hear of the arrests. She called sex trafficking, "a lucrative criminal enterprise. The profit from the selling of human beings is surpassing [the profits made from] drug trafficking."