Sentencing in sex trafficking case involving Topeka 18-year-old slams to halt Wednesday
Steve Fry
The sentencing Wednesday of an 18-year-old woman who pleaded guilty in March to a human trafficking charge was postponed moments after opening.
Hope Joy Mae Zeferjohn, of Topeka, pleaded guilty March 31 in Shawnee County District Court to a count of aggravated human trafficking tied to the attempted enticement of a 14-year-old girl into the sex trafficking trade.
On Wednesday, assistant public defender Jessica Glendening told District Judge David Debenham that Zeferjohn had told something to Glendening and assistant public defender Heather Nelson. Whatever Zeferjohn told her attorneys caused them to believe she now needs another defense attorney to represent her, Glendening told Debenham.
Glendening said the information would affect the legal advice the attorneys would have given Zeferjohn.
Precisely what Zeferjohn said to her attorneys remained confidential during the hearing.
Assistant district attorney Kelly Raines-Cunningham didn't object to the change in defense attorneys.
Zeferjohn's case next will be in court June 22.
As part of her plea, Zeferjohn would face a negotiated sentence of five years and 11 months, and 11 other charges against her were dismissed. However, the judge isn't required to follow the negotiated sentence. Shawnee County judges usually follow the suggested sentence, but not always.
During co-defendant Anthony Samuel Long's preliminary hearing, the victim testified that she was 14 years old and attending a church youth group in the central Kansas town of Wilson in 2015 when she met Zeferjohn, then 17. Zeferjohn forwarded a photo of the victim to Long and introduced them.
The victim and Long communicated through Facebook messages, and he eventually told her the graphically sexual nature of what he wanted to do with her and that he was training her so she would perform correctly when she was with other men, a Topeka police detective testified.
Long, 28, of Topeka, was sentenced May 31 to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven charges linked to sex trafficking: attempted aggravated human trafficking, indecent solicitation of a child, electronic solicitation of a child and four counts of sexual exploitation of a child. Before making the pleas, Long faced 32 charges, all of them felonies.
Contact reporter Steve Fry at (785) 295-1206 or @TCJCourtsNCrime on Twitter.