SAN JOSE — A Maryland man has been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking after he tried to recruit someone he thought was a 16-year-old San Jose girl into commercial sex work on the East Coast, only to discover that he had been corresponding with an undercover cop, authorities said.
Donnovan Dawkins, 29, was arrested Dec. 30 in Frederick, Maryland by local police on suspicion of crimes involving sex trafficking, according to San Jose police.
His arrest caps a months-long criminal investigation by the Santa Clara County Law Enforcement Investigating Human Trafficking task force, which in the case of Dawkins involved an undercover police officer posting a profile of a teen girl on social-media forums known for sex trafficking communications.
The case also coincided with the start of Human Trafficking Prevention Month as designated by President Biden, and the launch of an expanded county public outreach campaign led by the Valley Transportation Authority and backed by a coalition that includes the district attorney’s office, board of supervisors, and San Jose State University.
VTA Chief Executive Carolyn Gonot announced Friday that messaging on buses, light-rail trains, bus shelters and other facilities will be emblazoned with literature and slogans emphasizing how transit is a key place where kidnapping and trafficking can be detected and reported. She also highlighted the agency’s VTAlerts mobile phone app as a discreet way to flag potential exploitation to authorities.
A 2018 state law authored by San Jose-based state Assemblymember Ash Kalra mandated training for transit workers to identify signs of human trafficking, including when minors who don’t make eye contact or are actively prevented from communicating with transit operators by an adult accompanying them.
Ruth Silver Taube, a Santa Clara University law professor who serves as legal services chair for the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking and is a delegate to the county Human Trafficking Commission, designed the VTA’s training and called its commitment “nothing short of groundbreaking,” holding VTA up as a statewide leader in the field.
According to investigators, Dawkins contacted the user believing their profile was that of a 16-year-old girl from San Jose. Throughout their ensuing correspondence, Dawkins was repeatedly made aware that the user was underage, authorities said.
Through “extensive conversations with an undercover officer, the suspect solicited the female for commercial sex trafficking,” San Jose police said in a statement.
Dawkins allegedly pressed on and arranged to purchase an airline ticket for the user to fly to Baltimore and meet him. When the user cited her purported age again to tell him why she couldn’t fly to him, he reportedly gave her specific travel directions to avoid suspicion and detection.
Deputy District Attorney Patrick Vanier, who worked with the task force, said the undercover investigation was part of a response to an increase in online commercial sex trafficking targeting the South Bay.
“Traffickers and pimps see San Jose and Santa Clara County as a place to market the victims they’re exploiting,” Vanier said. “We’re doing a host of proactive investigations to identify these exploiters, root them out, and hold them accountable.”
The investigation of Dawkins resulted in an arrest warrant obtained Dec. 23, and a week later he was taken into police custody at a home in Frederick, Maryland. The arrest was coordinated among an array of agencies, including SJPD human trafficking detectives, the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Human Trafficking Task Force, and the State’s Attorney’s Office for Prince George’s County, where Dawkins lives.
In addition to anticipated charges in Santa Clara County, Vanier said Dawkins could face separate drug and weapons charges in Maryland based on what authorities recovered after serving related search warrants.
Anyone with information about suspected human trafficking can contact the SJPD Human Trafficking Task Force at 408-537-1999 and stopslavery@sanjoseca.gov, or the Santa Clara County task force at 408-792-2700 and HTTips@dao.sccgov.org. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.
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