SAN DIEGO — Two new individuals are now facing charges in the ongoing federal criminal case involving fugitive GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys owner Michael Pratt.
Brothers Fredrick and Efrain Jiminez face one count apiece of obstructing sex trafficking enforcement after “sheriff’s deputies found them moving items out of the home Pratt had been living in before abandoning it, according to a complaint unsealed in San Diego federal court last week,” writes Kristina Davis for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The men appeared before a magistrate judge on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. The complaint was unsealed in federal court earlier this month.
Pratt fled the country and is believed to have returned to his native New Zealand by way of Mexico; he left behind a house “north of Escondido apparently humming with computer equipment,” notes the Union-Tribune, and a pet cat.
That equipment has since disappeared.
A neighbor reported seeing two individuals removing items from Pratt’s abandoned house. When deputies arrived, they found the Jiminez brothers, who denied removing any computers or electronics.
Additionally, two pet-sitters from a service hired by Pratt before he left the country told investigators the computer equipment in the home had been removed sometime after October 13.
Further investigation revealed Fredrick Jiminez to have been an employee of GirlsDoPorn from July 2018 to February 2019.
The criminal cases against Pratt and others are proceeding, while the bench trial wrapped at the end of November; a verdict from Judge Kevin Enright is pending.