Janesville Woman Sentenced to 3 Years for Role in Sex Trafficking | USAO-WDWI

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Tonyiel Partee, 29, Janesville, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 36 months federal prison for conspiracy in sex trafficking commit. This prison sentence is followed by 5 years of supervised release. Partee pleaded guilty to these charges on July 8, 2021.

In September 2017, the mother of an underage woman contacted Janesville police to report that she had found Facebook messages on her daughter’s account indicating that her daughter was buying drugs from an adult man. The investigation found that the minor’s adult male not only sold drugs but also posted them on commercial sex websites.

In the course of the investigation, Partee was identified as a woman who also had commercial sex for the man. Over time, investigators found that Partee was helping the trafficker to recruit women and that she knew that the women she was recruiting were drug addicts and would be subjected to violence and coercion by the trafficker.

Judge Conley, while acknowledging that Partee had been “cared for” by the trafficker and was a victim himself, stated that the court “could not ignore the role.” [Partee] played “bullying others” by imposing her sentence.

The charges against Partee were the result of an investigation by the Janesville Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation. US Assistant Attorney Julie Pfluger is pursuing this case.