While out on bail in kidnapping case, Oakland man charged with child trafficking

OAKLAND — A man who was arrested on kidnapping charges just seven months ago has been charged again, this time with human trafficking, after two girls were allegedly found in his hotel room, court records show.

Brandon Johnson, 37, was charged last week with human trafficking of a minor, soliciting a child to prostitute and pandering, court records show. At the time of his arrest on Dec. 19, he was out on bail for pending charges of kidnapping a suspected adult sex worker in front of an undercover cop, court records show.

Police say a relative of a 14-year-old girl called police and told them the girl was with Johnson at the Bay Breeze Inn in Oakland. Police went there and found not only the girl, but a 15-year-old girl, as well as a replica gun in Johnson’s hotel room, according to court records.

Authorities allege that Johnson met one of the girl’s when she was at a youth crisis center in San Francisco and had been with her for several weeks. He reportedly gave the girls $500 daily quotas, instructing them to be sexually abused by adult strangers for as long as it took to make that amount, according to court records.

Johnson was arrested and charged back in May after an undercover officer allegedly saw him throwing a woman in a bikini into his vehicle and driving off, as she screamed for help. He posted $100,000 bail and was released from jail, records show. Johnson’s lawyer refuted the charges by arguing that the woman police identified as the victim denied it, and said she witnessed a different person throwing a different woman in his car.

Now Johnson is back behind bars at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, with bail set at $670,000, records show. He has pleaded not guilty and is due in court next on Jan. 12.

Johnson’s arrest was one of two near-identical incidents that occurred in Oakland that week. On Dec. 15, Oakland police rescued two runaway teen girls, aged 14 and 15, and arrested their alleged trafficker, Terrell Williams, who was later charged with rape, statutory rape and crimes related to alleged sex trafficking, court records show.