DETROIT (WWJ) -- A Detroit father and son duo have been sentenced after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking.
68-year-old Eligah Goodmon, was sentenced to 111 months in federal prison, while his 49-year-old son, Erskin Bernard Perryman, was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison in March 2021.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these sentences were postponed, but both Goodmon and Perryman have been in custody since their arrest in February 2020.
The two men are also charged with using force and coercion as well as firearm and controlled substance offenses.
According to court records, Goodmon and Perryman maintained a drug and prostitution house on Hazelwood Street in northwest Detroit.
Goodmon lived in the house while Perryman came to the house every day to supply crack cocaine and heroin to the drug-addicted women who lived there.
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Court records showed that in order to buy the drugs, the women would have to perform commercial sex dates. If the women did not follow Perryman’s demands, they said he became violent toward them.
Goodmon collected money from the commercial sex dates, provided the women with drugs and monitored their drug usage.
“These defendants treated their victims like a commodity,” said U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison. “They targeted vulnerable women and exploited them for their own profit and fueled their drug addictions by providing them with drugs. We hope that today’s sentence offers these victims a sense of justice and closure and sends the message that we will not tolerate sex trafficking in our communities.”
United States Attorney Ison was joined in the sentencing announcement by Acting Special Agent in Charge Josh P. Hauxhurst, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division.
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“These defendants exploited their victims in the worst way. By plying their victims with drugs, forcing them to engage in commercial sex, and subjecting them to violence if they refused, the defendants took away the freedom and dignity to which these women are entitled,” said Hauxhurst. “The FBI remains committed to working on behalf of victims across the state to hold traffickers responsible for their crimes.”
The case was investigated by special agents of the FBI and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sara D. Woodward and Lisandra Fernandez-Silber.