In a courtroom away from the neon signs and late-night streets where his crimes played out, Johnny Lee Gibson, 58, received a sentence of 90 months in federal prison for sex trafficking charges. According to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the sentence comes after Gibson, known as "Preach," pleaded guilty last December to charges that included conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion.
Gibson's enterprise spanned multiple states, including Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who handed down the sentence, also mandated that Gibson serve 10 years of supervised release following his prison term and register as a sex offender. The details of the case, which extended from 1994 until his arrest in 2024, paint a grim picture of coercion wherein Gibson supplied drug-addicted women with heroin to maintain control over them.
The investigation was led by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, composed of FBI agents and detectives from northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The force primarily focuses on bringing federal charges against individuals involved in the exploitation of children and those involved in human trafficking. Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan from the FBI and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department were among the primary officials credited with the announcement of the sentencing.
Ads placed online were a key component of Gibson's sex trafficking operation, some of which were specifically targeted at the DMV area. In a recorded statement released by officials upon his arrest, Gibson admitted "to sex trafficking five women, acting as a pimp, procuring drugs for them, and controling the women by providing access to drugs." Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen Ditzler Shinskie and Rachel Forman led the prosecution that ultimately concluded with today's sentencing.
