Police: Man brought woman to Santa Cruz to pimp her out
A Watsonville man is accused of convincing a Los Angeles woman to come to Santa Cruz County and then forcing her to prostitute herself.
Santa Cruz police arrested George Dewey Crawford, 29, at a Third Street motel Tuesday night after responding to reports of a domestic disturbance.
Deputy Chief Steve Clark said that when officers arrived, they found Crawford physically abusing a woman. While investigating, they determined Crawford had met the woman online and convinced her to come to Santa Cruz County, even paying for her bus ticket.
A couple of weeks after she arrived, he informed her that he planned to prostitute her for his financial gain. At first, Clark said, she went along with it, and Crawford took her to San Jose and Redding for this purpose, as well as pimping her out in Santa Cruz. He’d even set up an online profile for this purpose.
The night of the fight at the hotel, she’d told Crawford she didn’t want to do it anymore and was going to go back to southern California, Clark said. Instead, Crawford got violent with her.
Police arrested Crawford and he was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on suspicion of false imprisonment, pimping, domestic battery and pandering/procuring a person for purposes of prostitution.
