Couple charged with human trafficking makes first court appearance
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A married couple charged with human trafficking for selling a young woman into prostitution in the Bay Area last fall made their first court appearance on Thursday.
Sam Lindsey Massette, 37, and Krystina Marie Pickersgill, 27, of Lakeport were arraigned Thursday afternoon before Lake County Superior Court Judge Michael Lunas.
Massette and Pickersgill were arrested on Tuesday following a search warrant service at their Lakeport home, according to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
At that time the District Attorney’s Office also seized assets including two new Jaguars, two Mitsubishi automobiles and a large sum of cash.
While Massette is reported to work in information technology and Pickersgill’s occupation is “webcam model,” according to their booking sheets, the District Attorney’s Office maintains that neither are involved in, or have, either a legitimate business or income.
District Attorney Don Anderson said the pair recruited girls at an early age while they were still in high school and then sold them into prostitution in the Bay Area.
Anderson’s criminal complaint filed on Thursday against the couple said that from Sept. 21 to 30, 2017, the two took a young woman identified as “T.P.” from Lake County to San Francisco. There they rented a hotel room and over the course of two weekends sold her services as a prostitute, posting Internet ads to solicit customers and obtaining a phone for the young woman so she could take calls in response to the ad.
“This is done under force and fear and threats,” Anderson told Lake County News after the arraignment. “They’re really good at manipulating.”
The young woman would leave the situation on her own at the end of September, Anderson said.
However, it wasn’t until she saw an April production of “Jane Doe in Wonderland” – a play about young women being lured into human trafficking – at the Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport that she came forward to law enforcement.
At that time, she approached Anderson – who was speaking at the event – and told him her story. He subsequently launched a a nearly two-month-long investigation that led to the arrests of Massette and Pickersgill this week.
Massette and Pickersgill were in the same courtroom on Thursday, seated several feet away from each other in the jury box and wearing black and white striped jumpsuits.
In a hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes, Judge Lunas asked them a few questions, apprised them of their rights and then went over the points of the complaint the District Attorney’s Office filed against them earlier in the day.
Massette and Pickersgill are charged with four felonies: human trafficking, pimping and pandering, procuring for prostitution, and conspiring with other individuals whose identities are not yet known for the purposes of human trafficking, pimping and prostitution.
It’s also alleged that Massette has a prior serious felony conviction.
In March 2005 Massette was convicted in San Francisco of vehicular manslaughter in a case in which he originally was arrested for homicide, Anderson said.
A media report about the incident said that Massette ran over 16-year-old Nicholas Artola in a Safeway parking lot in San Francisco in February 2002 during a gang fight.
The combatants had used fists and baseball bats until Massette showed up in a vehicle and drove toward them, hitting and killing Artola. Massette fled the scene but later was arrested after being identified by witnesses, according to the media report.
During Thursday’s arraignment, Judge Lunas found the pair were eligible for public defenders and assigned Tom Quinn to represent Massette and Ed Savin to act as counsel to Pickersgill.
Lunas ordered the bail for each to remain at $1 million.
He scheduled them to return to court at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, June 12, for appearance of counsel and entry of plea.
Lunas also referred the case to the Probation Department for a bail review recommendation, with the bail review to take place at the time of the next hearing.
Asked if more victims are anticipated to be identified in the case, Anderson said, “Definitely.”
Since the news about the couple’s arrest broke on Wednesday, Anderson said his agency has been getting contacted by potential victims.
“We’re getting several calls,” he said. “We’re looking into all of them right now.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.