TBI: 11 men charged with trying to buy sex from minor

Ariana Maia Sawyer, Nashville Tennessean
·1 min read

Update, March 15, 2023: The charges against Alfredo Alvarez, Gary Rashad Canty, Ruben Chavez, Jose Huelitl, Samuel Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Keydarius Rucker and Koreyon Watkins no longer appear in court records, which typically indicates they were dismissed and expunged.

Dwjuan Bradford was found guilty of the lesser crime of reckless endangerment in March 2017. Austin Pickering was given a deferred judgement, meaning he took a conditional plea to complete probation and was found not guilty in exchange.

The multi-department investigation "Operation Someone Like Me" combating human trafficking in Nashville has resulted in the indictment of 11 men, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Friday.

The men are charged with patronizing prostitution from a person who is a minor, the TBI said in a news release.

The indictments come after special agents with the TBI, the Metro police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security Investigations worked together to arrest and cite 41 people in the undercover prostitution and human trafficking operation in Nashville earlier this month.

Each case was reviewed by the office of the Davidson County District Attorney General to determine whether a subject may have attempted to buy sex from an undercover agent posing as a minor.

The cases were presented Aug. 16 to the Davidson County grand jury, which returned indictments charging 11 of the individuals with patronizing prostitution from a minor, punishable under the Trafficking for Commercial Sex Act, Tennessee’s human trafficking law.

Nine of the following men were arrested by Metro police, TBI and Homeland Security Investigations on Friday, and each was booked into the Davidson County Jail on a $5,000 bond:

  • Alfredo Alvarez

  • Dwjuan Bradford

  • Gary Rashad Canty

  • Ruben Chavez

  • Jose Huelitl

  • Austin Pickering

  • Samuel Rodriguez-Gonzalez

  • Keydarius Rucker

  • Koreyon Watkins

Reach Ariana Sawyer at 615-259-8382 and on Twitter @a_maia_sawyer.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TBI: 11 men charged with trying to buy sex from minor