Source: Office of United States Attorneys
NEW ORLEANS – CHARLES CUNIGAN (“CUNIGAN”), a resident of Tennessee, was sentenced on January 14, 2025, for conspiring to commit sex trafficking, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1594(c).
According to court documents, CUNIGAN, age 31, and his girlfriend Latesha Gardner, age 31, forced a seventeen-year-old victim to engage in commercial sex acts in New Orleans for three months to generate money so CUNIGAN could purchase a vehicle. The defendants advertised the minor victim for commercial sex on the internet and used physical abuse and other means to force her to comply. CUNIGAN carried a firearm and pistol whipped the minor victim on one occasion. CUNIGAN kept all of the money the minor victim made from commercial sex transactions and required her to meet a minimum daily dollar threshold from these sex acts. He conditioned the victim’s ability to eat on whether she earned enough money. CUNIGAN also tracked the geolocation data on the victim’s phone and threatened to kill her if she left.
U.S. District Court Judge Jay C. Zainey sentenced CUNIGAN to 270 months’ imprisonment, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. CUNIGAN was ordered to pay $48,750 in restitution to the minor victim and to participate in the sex offender registration and notification program. In addition, Judge Zainey imposed a $100 mandatory special assessment fee. In September 2024, CUNIGAN’s co-defendant, Gardner, was sentenced to 60 months imprisonment for her role in this conspiracy.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, made the announcement.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Orlando, Florida Metropolitan Bureau of Investigations. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Maria M. Carboni and Trial Attorney Melissa E. Bücher of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.