She was known as 'Pimpin' Amanda.' Now, a Waukesha woman has been indicted on 10 alleged sex-trafficking offenses.
WAUKESHA - A federal grand jury has indicted a Waukesha woman ostensibly known as "Pimpin' Amanda" on sex trafficking charges for illicit activities dating back to 2004.
Colette Amanda Mahan, 39, faces 10 felony charges involving prostitution, sex trafficking of a child, victim coercion and the transport of sex trafficking victims to other states — charges which could amount to a maximum sentence of life in prison.
She was indicted April 28 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, where she made her initial appearance May 5.
In an unrelated case, she is also charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court with one felony count of robbery with use of force and misdemeanor battery. But it's the federal prostitution-related charges that carry the most serious consequences if she is convicted.
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According to federal officials and the criminal complaint, Mahan was also known by the aliases "Pimpin' Amanda" and "Amanda Chase" in the years she was allegedly engaged in a prostitution ring.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Milwaukee Police Department, and the Racine County Sheriff’s Office each investigated elements of the allegations, eventually resulting in calling in a grand jury to consider whether she should be charged.
Officials said she transported six victims of sex-trafficking to other states — including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, and Florida — at various times. Those instances account for four of the 10 counts.
One count specifies that the violations, involving interstate travel to engage in prostitution, occurred over 14 years, beginning in 2004. Among the sex trafficking victims was a child younger than 18, according to a separate count.
Four other counts allege that Mahan used "force, fraud, and coercion" to traffic an
adult victim into commercial sex acts.
Those four counts carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of up to life in prison, said Richard G. Frohling, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, in a news release.
For the remaining counts, if she is convicted, Mahan faces maximum penalties of 40 years in prison for sex trafficking of a child, 10 years in prison for the interstate
transportation charges, and five years in prison for the racketeering charge, plus fines of up to $250,000 for each count.
The federal case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erica J. Lounsberry and Laura S. Kwaterski.
Mahan's attorney, Ronnie Murray, did not immediately reply to an interview request.
Mahan's legal troubles don't stop there.
She was charged March 28 in Waukesha County Circuit Court for a Jan. 22 incident involving a Milwaukee woman, who claimed Mahan forced her to withdraw $500 from a bank ATM on Capitol Drive in Brookfield.
According to the criminal complaint, Mahan struck the woman 20 to 30 times from the time they entered the woman's vehicle in Milwaukee to the point where she made a third withdrawal from her account for a total of $500. The maximum penalty for the felony robbery count is 15 years prison and a $50,000 fine.
For the state's robbery case, she posted a cash bond and was released. However, in the federal case, a judge on May 9 ordered that Mahan be detained pending trial, based on her pattern of physical violence, intimidation and exploitation contained in the allegations.
According to online records, she is being held in the Waukesha County Jail.
Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sex trafficking, prostitution charges filed against Waukesha woman
