- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Woman arrested in 2018 in human trafficking case reaches plea deal, sentenced to probation
Judge Shanda Harry sentenced Krystina Marie Pickersgill, 29, to three years’ felony probation in a court appearance last week, said District Attorney Susan Krones.
Krones said Pickersgill was sentenced for one human trafficking count, depriving a female victim, Jane Doe No. 1, of her personal liberty with the intent to obtain forced labor or services.
The case had a total of five victims, but the plea agreement involved just one of them. Seven other charges for human trafficking and prostitution dropped were dropped as part of the agreement, Krones said.
In June 2018, at the end of a two-month-long investigation by the District Attorney’s Office, Pickersgill and her husband Sam Massette were arrested and charged with human trafficking after investigators concluded the couple had been selling local girls into prostitution in the Bay Area, as Lake County News has reported.
That spring, a young woman who has been the victim of a human trafficking operation run by Massette and Pickersgill approached a California Highway Patrol officer Krones was with at a production of “Jane Doe in Wonderland,” a play about human trafficking presented at the Soper Reese Theater in Lakeport.
“So that just basically fell into our laps,” Krones said of the case.
The victim came to the District Attorney’s Office the following week to speak to investigators, and that began the case, Krones said.
District Attorney’s Office offers same plea agreement twice
In October 2018, as the result of a plea agreement with then-District Attorney Don Anderson, Pickersgill pleaded guilty to one count of human trafficking.
That original agreement offered Pickersgill – who had no previous criminal record – three years of probation, credit for the four months previously served in the Lake County Jail following her arrest and mental health treatment. Anderson said at the time that if she failed to complete the probation terms, she faced up to 12 years in prison.
Anderson made the agreement based on the conclusion that Massette had taken Pickersgill off of medication for mental health issues and coerced her into prostitution. Later, Anderson said she became a willing participant in recruiting high school girls who were taken to the Bay Area, where they were coerced and threatened to perform acts of prostitution.
Anderson also made a plea deal with Massette, who Judge Michael Lunas sentenced in December 2018 to 20 years in prison for human trafficking for the purposes of prostitution and two counts of pimping women in prostitution, along with ordering him to register as a sex offender for life. With credits and time served, Massette is expected to serve a total of nine years in prison.
In January 2019, however, Judge J. David Markham refused to accept Pickersgill’s plea, which she later withdrew.
What followed last year was a series of rescheduled hearings and ongoing consideration of the defense request for mental health diversion, which Krones said the court ultimately denied.
Krones said she had reviewed the entire case file because of previous court proceedings in regard to the mental health diversion program. Judge Harry also reviewed the file.
“We offered the same previous offer that we had made,” Krones said, referring to the original plea agreement that Anderson had offered Pickersgill about a year and a half ago.
At the Feb. 14 court appearance, Pickersgill accepted the offer by pleading to one charge of Penal Code 236.1(a), depriving Jane Doe No. 1 of her personal liberty with the intent to obtain forced labor or services. It was the same charge she had pleaded to previously, Krones said.
As a result of that plea, Krones said the other seven counts were dismissed.
Krones said Judge Harry used a sentencing report that had previously been completed by the Lake County Probation Department as the basis of the sentencing, since there had been no changes in the case.
That report – as well as the investigative report on the case – indicated that Pickersgill had started out as a victim. Krones said that even though Pickersgill later had begun participating in the crimes, she was under Massette’s control.
“He really manipulated her in many different ways,” Krones said, noting Massette was profiting from and directing the human trafficking.
Krones said Pickersgill gets no credit in the probation for the 240 days of time served in the jail. Pickersgill’s probation began on Feb. 14, the day of the sentencing.
Pickersgill has to follow numerous probation terms, Krones said, and as such is subject to search and seizure, has to go to counseling as ordered by the Probation Department, has to get services they determine she needs, she can be drug tested and she has to fill out monthly reports about where she is living and if her situation has changed, among other requirements.
Lake County News spoke with one of the five victims in the case, Jane Doe No. 2, about the outcome of Pickersgill’s case.
“I really don't have much to say when it comes to her involvement. I know people that are the best of friends with her and portray her really as a naive victim with a heart of gold. Personally I feel there is no way that you don't understand what you're convincing these young women to do, even if you feel it's their free will choice,” she said of Pickersgill.
The young woman, who had opposed Massette’s sentencing agreement, said her “true feelings of disgust with the justice system, or better yet injustice, lie solely” with Massette’s sentencing.
Krones said her office continues to track human trafficking cases, with her investigators constantly following up on leads.
She said it’s sometimes not easy to get individuals to come forward, change their lives and get out from under the main perpetrator.
The District Attorney’s Office is currently investigating several human trafficking cases, but Krones said none are ready to charge yet.
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