OAKLAND — Attorneys made closing arguments Thursday in a human trafficking case in which a man is accused of burning a victim and sodomizing a teen so badly she bled for months.
Albert Rich, 35, is accused of human trafficking of a child, rape, kidnapping, pimping and torture, and several other charges. Rich was arrested June 5, 2017, in Oakland, after one of the females’ friends called police.
One of the victims, “Tasha Doe” took the stand during the trial to testify against Rich, who she said burned her with a flat-iron, a hair-styling device. Photos shown to the jury depicted the dark burnt flesh, stuck on the flat iron.
After she had called him an expletive, he began yelling at her, then beat her and punched her, she testified. He then took the hot flat iron and clamped it on her arm, she said.
Although on her skin for a matter of seconds, her skin bubbled, and the burn took months to heal, she said. With only a towel around her burn, she was forced to work that night as a prostitute, she said.
In her closing arguments Thursday, prosecutor Sabrina Farrell showed the jury a photo of a deodorant spray can, which she said the defendant used to sodomize a teen girl so badly, she was still bleeding 12 hours later.
Farrell described how Rich was punishing the girl for supposedly trying to run away. He beat her first, and then sat and ate a can of oysters as she cried, and he laughed at her, the prosecutor said.
“Do you think she’s had enough?” he allegedly asked the other women in the room, Farrell said. No one responded.
After the abuse, the girl was forced to work as a prostitute, the prosecutor said. He told her, “Now go make me my money,” Farrell said.
“All these crimes he’s committing is for the purposes of human trafficking,” Farrell said.
The girl, still bleeding 12 hours later when she was examined at a hospital, had to wear a diaper for four months because of her injuries, the prosecutor said.
But Rich’s defense attorney Ernie Castillo said that the jury agreed to put aside sympathy and prejudice and presume that Rich is innocent. He said the case begins and ends with the idea of human trafficking.
“That’s really what this case is; it’s about pimping — not human trafficking,” Castillo said.
He said that the definition of human trafficking is when someone deprives another person’s liberty, usually by force or fear. Castillo argued that these women all chose to go into prostitution.
He gave examples that some of the women, for example the 17-year-old girl, had a history of working as prostitutes, and that Rich did not force them into it.
“She’s a kid and she shouldn’t be doing this. I get it,” Castillo said. “But that’s not why we’re here.”
In the case of another victim, there is evidence that she told Rich and another woman that she was going to leave, and asked if she could come back.
“If you’re forced into this situation, why in the world would you ask to come back?” Castillo said.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations after closing arguments.