San Jose man to face trial in Santa Cruz child drug, sex trafficking case
SANTA CRUZ — A 23-year-old San Jose man will stand to face trial on more than a dozen felony counts related to drug distribution and underage sexual relations, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge ruled Monday.
Michael Russell was arrested Dec. 2 in what has been charged by the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office as a sex trafficking case of a 17-year-old girl. In addition to allegedly having illegal sexual relations purportedly spanning from July 2020 to July 2021, Russell is accused of taking part and financial benefit in the teen’s creation of a social media account where she charged viewers for nude photos of herself.
In February, prosecutors added a spate of additional sexual- and drug-related charges connected to a second underaged teenager, who fatally overdosed in November. The girl, a 16-year-old Santa Cruz resident, was with Russell at his mother’s Corralitos home at the time of her Nov. 12 death, according to testimony Monday during Russell’s preliminary hearing. Russell allegedly did not know the girl’s actual age until the day before she died, according to testimony from several deputies.
Detectives asked Russell, after his arrest, why he was dating two underaged girls back-to-back, according to the testimony of Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office deputy detective Robbie McClure. According to McClure’s testimony, Russell said that it was not that he was looking for them, but that “they felt comfortable with him” and that he “got along better with younger people.” Russell purportedly told McClure that he had experienced his own family hardships and connected well with the girls who were said to have similar problems.
The 17-year-old girl similarly told investigators, according to testimony, that Russell had confided that he was attracted to blond females who had been assaulted, because he, too, had been assaulted in the past.
Russell is facing felony charges of human trafficking under 18, three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, sodomy with a child under 18, oral copulation with a person under 18, two counts of lewd communications with a minor, harmful matter sent to a minor with intent to seduce, two counts of possessing obscene matter, depicting sexual conduct of a child, two counts of adult giving a minor a control substance and furnishing a minor with marijuana. He also faces a single misdemeanor destroying or concealing evidence charge related to the younger girl’s phone.
Judge Stephen Siegel held Russell to answer on 16 of 17 charges filed against him, scheduling a new arraignment on the information for July 25. He found that there was not enough evidence presented Monday to forward one of two oral copulation charges.