October 6, 2006
Contact Person: Deputy District Attorney, A.J. Pongratz
Phone number 874-6632
District Attorney Jan Scully
announced today that Kevin Kennedy, age 43, a prisoner in the custody of
the California Department of Corrections, was sentenced by Sacramento
Superior Court Judge James Orr to an additional three years in state
prison for a violation of Penal Code sections 182(a)(1)/ 266h(a)
Conspiracy to Pimp and Pander. Kennedy is currently serving a forty-five
month prison sentence for domestic violence and pimping and pandering.
During the period of July 2, 2003 to August 3, 2004, Avenal State Prison
inmate Kennedy organized and managed an in-call/out-call prostitution
ring out of an Elk Grove residence. Inmate Kennedy was able to organize
and manage “Discreet Desires” Escort Service with the assistance of his
son Kevin Craven, age 21, and Kennedy’s girlfriend, Kelly Crowder, age
25. Both Craven and Crowder were sentenced to one year in the county
jail and four years of formal probation for violating Penal Code
sections 182(a)(1)/266h(a) Conspiracy to Pimp and Pander.
In July of 2004, several citizens witnessed suspicious activity at the
residence in question and reported their observations to the Elk Grove
Police Department. Detectives surveilled the residence on Trumbauer Way
and set up a sting operation targeting Kelly Crowder who twice agreed to
a sex for money exchange with two undercover officers. The detectives
gathered sufficient evidence to obtain a search warrant for the
Trumbauer Way residence and located numerous pieces of written
correspondence from Kevin Kennedy, an inmate at Avenal State Prison. In
reviewing the inmate telephone records at Avenal State Prison,
detectives were able to locate telephone calls made to the residence in
question where Kevin Kennedy communicated with his prostitutes. While
the conversations were thick with street-slang and “coded” idioms, the
statements by Kevin Kennedy evidenced his dominion and control over
these women.
Deputy District Attorney A.J. Pongratz stated that unlike most pimping
and pandering cases, this case was not made by the testimony of one of
the prostitutes testifying for the prosecution; rather, the proof in
this case came from circumstantial evidence, the admissions of the
defendants and the observations of the officers of the Elk Grove Police
Department. The neighbors of the Elk Grove residence in question should
be commended for their vigilance and courage in reporting the criminal
activity that they observed.