{"id":304843,"date":"2023-12-27T17:53:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T23:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=304843"},"modified":"2023-12-28T10:22:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T16:22:52","slug":"strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Strat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man and a woman staying at The Strat<\/a> hotel this month were scheduled to appear in Las Vegas court Wednesday on sex trafficking<\/a> charges.\u00a0<\/span>They allegedly kidnapped<\/a> and trafficked a teenaged girl<\/a> over four days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Strat
The Las Vegas gateway arches light up the street at the base of the Strat Hotel, Casino & SkyPod. Two hotel guests were arrested. (Image: Los Angeles Times<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The defendants, Mark Johnson, 23, and Donnesha Ellis, 21, held the unnamed teen against her will in their hotel room while she worked the streets bringing money to Johnson, authorities said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The couple was charged last Wednesday with two counts each of sex trafficking of a minor under 18, first-degree kidnapping of a minor, child abuse or neglect, and a single count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department<\/a> (LVMPD) officers interviewed the teenaged victim and were given access to her cell phone. <\/span><\/p>\n

That evidence led to the arrest of Johnson, Ellis, and another woman, Alissa Isles, 19, who was identified as Johnson\u2019s girlfriend.<\/span><\/p>\n

Incriminating Texts<\/span><\/h2>\n

Police found incriminating texts on the victim\u2019s phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson once texted the victim, \u201cWhy haven\u2019t you got any plays today?\u201d — a reference to her not getting tricks from street work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, Isles once texted the victim and suggested that the victim and another girl solicit tricks on the \u201cTrop.\u201d That\u2019s a section of West Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas with a reputation for prostitution.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Isles further suggested that she not work in the same area as the victim, so they don\u2019t create suspicion among local police who regularly patrol West Tropicana Avenue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, Isles warned the victim \u201cto be careful of undercover officers in the area.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

At another point, Ellis allegedly texted the victim \u201cyou still need to bring back something, or don\u2019t come back.\u201d That appears to be a reference to her bringing money to Johnson from tricks or not to return to the hotel room.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earned Over 1.2K<\/span><\/h2>\n

In total, the victim earned $1,270 from sex trafficking over several days. The teen gave about half of the cash to Johnson and apparently kept half for herself.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The victim had been engaged in sex trafficking under the direction of Johnson and Isles for several days. <\/span><\/p>\n

They initially met via a mutual friend, the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/i> reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

The third suspect, Isles, was apprehended by police this week. But charges against her were not identified as of Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

It appears, so far, the victim wasn\u2019t charged with crimes. Police didn\u2019t identify her age or where she resided before hooking up with Johnson and Ellis.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man and a woman staying at The Strat hotel this month were scheduled to appear in Las Vegas court Wednesday on sex trafficking charges. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":304852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,81886],"tags":[13766,23,82503],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStrat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A man and a woman staying at The Strat were nabbed on sex trafficking charges. They were scheduled to appear in Las Vegas court on Wednesday.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A man and a woman staying at The Strat were nabbed on sex trafficking charges. They were scheduled to appear in Las Vegas court on Wednesday.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-27T23:53:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-28T16:22:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/strat.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"581\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed Silverstein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgedsilv\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ed Silverstein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/\",\"name\":\"Strat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/strat.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-27T23:53:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-28T16:22:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e\"},\"description\":\"A man and a woman staying at The Strat were nabbed on sex trafficking charges. They were scheduled to appear in Las Vegas court on Wednesday.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/strat.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/strat.jpeg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":581},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Strat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e\",\"name\":\"Ed Silverstein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-6-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-6-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Ed Silverstein\"},\"description\":\"Ed Silverstein is a senior reporter covering gambling law and crime news for Casino.org. Ed is an award-winning journalist with credits ranging from the Associated Press to American Lawyer Media. Ed joined the Casino.org news team in 2019 after decades of experience in legal reporting. His past reporting and editing assignments include Cowles Business Media, Columbia University Press, the Connecticut Post, and Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. Besides the law and its application to the gaming industry, Ed\u2019s areas of expertise span business, politics, education, and state and local government. Ed holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut and master\u2019s degrees from Harvard and Yale. His professional awards include recognition from the New England Press Association and New England AP News Executives. Ed currently resides in Connecticut, where he enjoys photography and bowling in his spare time. Contact Ed at ed.silverstein@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/ed-silverstein\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgedsilv\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/ed-silverstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Strat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl","description":"A man and a woman staying at The Strat were nabbed on sex trafficking charges. They were scheduled to appear in Las Vegas court on Wednesday.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Strat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl","og_description":"A man and a woman staying at The Strat were nabbed on sex trafficking charges. They were scheduled to appear in Las Vegas court on Wednesday.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-12-27T23:53:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-28T16:22:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":581,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/strat.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ed Silverstein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgedsilv","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ed Silverstein","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/","name":"Strat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/strat.jpeg","datePublished":"2023-12-27T23:53:28+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-28T16:22:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e"},"description":"A man and a woman staying at The Strat were nabbed on sex trafficking charges. They were scheduled to appear in Las Vegas court on Wednesday.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/strat.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/strat.jpeg","width":1200,"height":581},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-guests-allegedly-kidnapped-trafficked-juvenile-girl\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Strat Hotel Guests Allegedly Kidnapped, Trafficked Juvenile Girl"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e","name":"Ed Silverstein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-6-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-6-1-96x96.png","caption":"Ed Silverstein"},"description":"Ed Silverstein is a senior reporter covering gambling law and crime news for Casino.org. Ed is an award-winning journalist with credits ranging from the Associated Press to American Lawyer Media. Ed joined the Casino.org news team in 2019 after decades of experience in legal reporting. His past reporting and editing assignments include Cowles Business Media, Columbia University Press, the Connecticut Post, and Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. Besides the law and its application to the gaming industry, Ed\u2019s areas of expertise span business, politics, education, and state and local government. Ed holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut and master\u2019s degrees from Harvard and Yale. His professional awards include recognition from the New England Press Association and New England AP News Executives. Ed currently resides in Connecticut, where he enjoys photography and bowling in his spare time. Contact Ed at ed.silverstein@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/ed-silverstein","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgedsilv"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/ed-silverstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304843"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304882,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304843\/revisions\/304882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}