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Description: Portland, Oregon criminal defense lawyer represented defendant charged for transporting two teen girls across state lines, drugging and sexually abusing them, and selling them to other men for sex.

In 2016, John L. Jackson, age 34, met and befriended Keonte Desmond Scott, 23, also of Vancouver, after Scott’s release from prison. Jackson sold Scott cocaine and eventually began coaching him in commercial sex trafficking. In late 2016, Scott began a relationship with Jackson’s future co-defendant and fellow Vancouver resident Diana Petrovic, 23. Jackson helped Scott traffic Petrovic and they soon began using Petrovic to recruit and traffic other minor females.

By the summer of 2018, Scott returned to prison and Petrovic began working directly with Jackson. In late August 2018, Petrovic targeted a 15-year-old female on social media that Petrovic and Scott had previously trafficked, and convinced the girl to meet under false pretenses. Jackson, armed with a firearm, Petrovic, and another adult woman drove to Eugene to pick her up. When the group arrived, the girl was accompanied by a 14-year-old friend. On the drive back to Vancouver, Jackson supplied both girls with drugs and was overheard talking about how they are going to make them some money.

In Vancouver, Jackson supplied them with even more drugs and then Jackson and Petrovic engaged in sex acts with the heavily intoxicated girls. At some point they went to a house for Jackson to get additional cocaine. Inside the house, they sent one of the girls back to a room to engage in sexual acts with the drug supplier in exchange for drugs and money. Jackson and Petrovic later took the girls to a gathering at an auto shop in Battle Ground, Washington where they forced one of the girls to have sex with an adult man and took the money that the man paid her. The other girl, convinced Jackson and Petrovic were going to kill her, was able to escape with a man from the shop who helped her get back home.

Jackson and Petrovic took the remaining girl to a residence in Northeast Portland where she was forced to have sex with one man for $300 and forcibly raped by another. The girl ultimately was able to escape the hotel they later took her to and was rescued several hours later by her grandfather.

On May 8, 2019, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a six-count indictment charging Scott, Petrovic, and two accomplices with sex trafficking of children and transporting minors with intent to engage in sexual activity.

On October 9, 2019, in a separate criminal case, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a three-count indictment charging Jackson and Petrovic with sex trafficking of a child by force, fraud, and coercion; sex trafficking of a child; and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity. Later, on November 17, 2021, Jackson and Petrovic were charged by a second superseding indictment with conspiring to engage in sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking of a child; sex trafficking of a child by force, fraud, and coercion; and transporting a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity.

On March 11, 2022, Jackson was convicted at trial by a federal jury in Portland.

On July 22, 2020, Petrovic was charged by criminal information with distributing a controlled to a person under 21 and pleaded guilty, resolving both of her criminal cases. She will be sentenced on April 23, 2023.

On December 9, 2021, Scott pleaded guilty to two counts of sex trafficking. On May 31, 2022, Scott was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison and five years’ supervised release.

This case was investigated by FBI Portland’s Child Exploitation Task Force (CETF) with assistance from the Tigard Police Department and Portland Police Bureau. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ashley Cadotte and Pamela Paaso with assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly Zusman, Suzanne Miles, and Thomas Ratcliffe, and Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Glen Ujifusa.

The FBI CETF conducts sexual exploitation investigations, many of them undercover, in coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. CETF is committed to locating and arresting those who prey on children as well as recovering and assisting victims of sex trafficking and child exploitation.

If you or someone you know is in danger, please call 911. If you are a human trafficking victim or have information about a potential human trafficking situation, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or by texting 233733. Calls and texts are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Human trafficking is a serious federal crime where individuals are compelled by force, fraud, or coercion to engage in commercial sex, labor, or domestic servitude against their will. Traffickers exploit and endanger some of the most vulnerable members of our society and cause unimaginable harm. In January 2022, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland launched a new national strategy to combat human trafficking that aims to prevent all forms of trafficking, prosecute trafficking cases, and support trafficking victims and survivors.

Outcome: 07/25/2022 431 (DOCUMENT FILED UNDER SEAL), Exhibit by Johnl Jackson regarding Sentencing Memorandum 428 filed by Defendant Johnl Jackson Exhibits 1-8 (Olson, Per) (Entered: 07/25/2022)
07/25/2022 432 Minutes of Proceedings: Sentencing Hearing held before Judge Michael W. Mosman as to Defendant Johnl Jackson(USM #81493-065). PSR to be amended. See Formal Judgment. Defendant advised of right to appeal. Counsel Present for Plaintiff: Pamela Paaso, Ashley Cadotte. Counsel Present for Defendant: Per Olson. (USPO Present: Jessica Lehmann) (Court Reporter Bonita Shumway) (kms) (Entered: 07/25/2022)
07/25/2022 433 Judgment & Commitment as to Johnl Jackson (1):
Count(s) 1, 10s, 1s, 1ss, 2, 2s-3s, 2ss, 3, 3sss, 4s, 5s-6s, 6sss, 7s, 7sss, 8s, 9s:
Dismissed on the motion of the United States.
Count(s) 1sss, 2sss, 4sss, 5sss, 8sss, and 9sss:
SENTENCING DATE: 7/25/22
IMPRISONMENT: Two hundred (200) months on each count(s) 1sss, 2sss, 4sss, 5sss, 8sss, and 9sss of the Second Superseding Indictment, with the sentence on all counts to be served concurrently with each other.
SUPERVISED RELEASE: Five (5) years on each count(s) 1sss, 2sss, 4sss, 5sss, 8sss, and 9sss of the Second Superseding Indictment.
SPECIAL ASSESSMENT: $100.00 for each count(s) 1sss, 2sss, 4sss, 5sss, 8sss, and 9sss.
(USM #81493-065) Signed on 7/25/22 by Judge Michael W. Mosman. (Three certified copies forwarded to U.S. Marshal on 7/25/22.) (sb) (Entered: 07/25/2022)
07/25/2022 434 Statement of Reasons as to Johnl Jackson (NOTE: This document is filed under seal and access is restricted to counsel of record) (USM #81493-065). Signed on 7/25/22 by Judge Michael W. Mosman. (sb) (Entered: 07/25/2022)

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