55°F
weather icon Mostly Clear

Las Vegas man accused of working as pimp, raping woman

A Las Vegas man has been charged with raping a woman as part of what police say was a sex trafficking operation in California.

Lawrence Walls, 40, was booked on Monday at the Clark County Detention Center on multiple felonies, including first-degree kidnapping, two counts of sexual assault, sex trafficking, and living off the earnings off a prostitute with force or threat. He remained in custody Friday on $500,000 bail.

A Las Vegas police arrest report for Walls states that a Texas woman recently flew to California to meet a woman she had met online. The two then were joined by a third woman, and all three traveled to Walls’ house in Las Vegas, according to the report. The Texas woman said she was raped there by Walls, and that she witnessed Walls beating the two other women because they had not made enough money for him as prostitutes in California.

“Walls expected $25,000, and the females only brought back $20,000,” the report states.

The accuser said she and the other two women then were ordered to go to California and make money working as prostitutes, according to the report. When the trio drove back to California, however, the Texas woman was able to escape by orchestrating a false story about a family member dying and saying that she needed to fly home.

Police said they arrested Walls on Monday in Las Vegas as he drove an orange Porsche with California license plates. Walls told police he worked as a promoter. He also denied assaulting anyone, then asked for a lawyer, according to the arrest report.

The report states that Wall is 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 290 pounds.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for April 18 in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.

THE LATEST
 
Super Bowl not the culprit in human trafficking, advocate says

The head of anti-human trafficking group In Our Backyard says there is no direct evidence that human trafficking increases in the host city because of the Super Bowl.