NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans man was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison Thursday for running a sex trafficking ring where his girlfriend would promise men sex, drug them, render them unconscious and rob them, including a Metairie man who died after falling prey to the scam in 2017.
U.S. District Judge Barry Ashe threw the book at Randy Schenck after his girlfriend, Dominique Berry, testified against him and the court heard victim impact statements, including from Bob Arthur, whose 40-year-old son, Shawn, died in his Metairie apartment after Berry spiked his beer with a pill, took his credit and debit cards and other valuables and brought them to Schenck.
Jefferson Parish authorities ruled Shawn Arthur’s death an accident at first, but Bob Arthur hired a private investigator who got a recorded jailhouse confession from Berry in Georgia.
In the recording, Berry said she didn’t know Shawn Arthur had died after she drugged him, but she confessed to doing so and also to drugging and robbing 50 other men at Schenck’s insistence.
She described in detail how she would advertise her services as a prostitute online, meet men at their homes, start rubbing their shoulders or backs, slip them pills in their drinks and send texts to Schenck with the letters “DP,” for “dropped pill.”
Then, she said, Schenck would come pick her up and they would grab jewelry, money and other valuables from the incapacitated men.
Arthur also teamed with investigative reporter David Lohr at the Huffington Post. They were able to find 11 other victims in seven states and present the investigative file to the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2018.
The feds charged Schenck with conspiracy, identity theft and sex trafficking in June 2019.
Bob Arthur was also able to get the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office to change the cause of Shawn’s death, but over more than five years, he has not convinced Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick’s office to press murder or manslaughter charges.
The Arthur family put out a statement criticizing the Jefferson Parish authorities, saying they “acted more like a defense attorney for a federally convicted sex trafficker than an organization aimed at solving and prosecuting crimes.”
Connick’s office has declined to comment on a pending investigation.
“I promised my son justice and my family closure,” Bob Arthur said in an email to WWL-TV. “By God, we are not giving up. We are grateful for the success to date. However, we have only achieved partial justice.”
Schenck has been in jail since his arrest in June 2019. He pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and human trafficking counts, but Ashe gave him no credit for the three years served in jail and sentenced him to the maximum prison terms for each charge – five years for the conspiracy and 20 years for the human trafficking.
Berry pleaded guilty in December 2019 to conspiracy and identity theft and testified against Schenck.
At Schenck’s sentencing, Judge Ashe found that Schenck threatened Berry to get her to participate in the scheme and heard testimony about Schenck violently attacking Berry and her family when she tried to disobey him.
Her sentencing is now set for Nov. 17. Schenck also faces a Dec. 29 hearing to set restitution he must pay to the victims.
