Warren County man sentenced for role in human trafficking of women in Roxbury and Hanover
A Morris County judge on Friday handed a 5-year prison sentence to a man who admitted he was sex trafficking two women in Morris County hotels.
Superior Court Judge Noah Franzblau's ruling on a charge of conspiracy to promote prostitution adds to an already significant history of legal convictions for William Wilson, 49, of Belvidere. The judge also sentenced Wilson to an additional three years in prison on charges of forgery and possession of a controlled dangerous substance.
Though the sentences total eight years, the judge agreed to run them at the same time as an eight-year sentence Wilson is already serving for an August 2020 armed robbery in Warren County. Wilson will be eligible for release on parole in 2027.
Wilson's charges stem from allegations that he was accomplice to Jeremiah Forde, 41, of Dover, and was using drugs and violent threats to force women to work as prostitutes out of hotels in Roxbury and Hanover between August and November of 2018, prosecutors said. A judge sentenced Forde to 28 years in state prison last month on several charges including promoting prostitution, aggravated sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and privacy invasion.
The men were accused of forcing the women into sex work by using physical threats and by plying the women with drugs, prosecutors said. The men would then allegedly keep the proceeds the women earned.
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Franzblau said Friday the sentence, which aligned with one negotiated by prosecutors, weighed heavily on several factors, including Wilson's "significant" criminal history in the state as well as Minnesota and Michigan. He also raised concerns that Wilson had the potential to reoffend in the future and there was a need to deter him from any future criminal activity.
Forde was expected to head to trial on the charges stemming from the human trafficking case, but abruptly took a plea deal in November. Wilson had previously agreed to testify against his co-defendant, a factor that the judge said weighed "slightly" in his favor.
In August 2020, Wilson was arrested after he entered Café X, a virtual gaming center in Phillipsburg, and held a juvenile clerk at gunpoint, threatened to shoot them and asked for all the money in the register, according to court records. Wilson fled, but his image was captured on several Ring cameras as he did so, leading to his arrest just hours later, police said.
Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Warren County NJ: Man sentenced for sex trafficking women
