An attorney for a 33-year-old man who was due to be sentenced last month for sex trafficking was granted a request Thursday to withdraw from the case after his client said he wanted to go back on his guilty plea.
U.S. District Judge John Holcomb appointed attorney Christina Sinha of the Federal Public Defender’s Office to represent Leslie Anthony Bailey going forward. Sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 23, but Sinha told Holcomb it was “highly likely” she would ask for a new date before then.
In court documents, Leslie Anthony Bailey had appeared to admit that he had picked up a woman from a “fentanyl treatment facility” on Feb. 5, 2022, supplied her with the drug and then “forced” her to work as a prostitute in Anaheim. Prosecutors said when the woman said she wanted to go back to the drug treatment facility he instead took her to the forest “where he sexually assaulted her and abandoned her on the side of a remote mountain highway.”
But at his Sept. 19 sentencing hearing, Bailey told Holcomb “I didn’t sign that plea agreement.” He said he was “not in the right mindset. I was in the hole,” when he pleaded guilty in April. The defendant said his attorney at the time, Jonathan Evans, told him, “If the judge asks you tell him you signed that” plea agreement. He went on to deny the rape allegation against him.
Bailey said he would “take responsibility for what I did … Yes, I was running a prostitution deal, but I didn’t rape anyone or kidnap anyone.”
Evans denied the allegation.
“I do dispute what was said, but I’m trying to preserve what shred of attorney-client privilege I have left,” Evans said.
About a year after the alleged rape, the defendant “used force and threats of force to cause another victim … to engage in commercial sex work at his direction,” prosecutors said. Bailey’s “criminal history reflects a pattern of violent behavior, and prior sentences were clearly not sufficient to deter him from engaging in similar behavior … To the contrary — defendant’s violent tendencies appear to have escalated,” authorities added.
Evans said his client has completed multiple programs while in custody as well as educational programs for Spanish literacy. Bailey suffers from “acute anxiety” and has spent a significant time in isolation while in custody, his attorney said.
The woman who prosecutors said was raped has since died, Evans said in his sentencing brief.
“Her death, unrelated to Mr. Bailey’s conduct, underscores that her addiction was a persistent struggle that pre-dated and outlived the charged conduct,” Evans wrote as he argued against a bump-up in punishment due to a legal standard for “vulnerable victims.”
Federal prosecutors said in court papers the defendant should be sentenced to 30 years in prison. Evans was arguing for a term of 19 years and seven months.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Spencer said she would resist any move to withdraw the plea.
Bailey “was under oath” at the change-of-plea hearing, she said last month.
“He indicated he signed the plea agreement,” Spencer said. “He heard the factual basis (as it was read aloud).”