An Oakland County man, identified as Quincy Lamar Bland, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on multiple charges stemming from a human trafficking operation conducted out of Waterford, Michigan motels, as reported by CBS News Detroit. Bland, who has a pre-existing record of violent crimes including assault with intent to murder, faced legal consequences again after Oakland County Circuit Court Judge David Cohen issued the sentence late last month.
The network Bland operated ensnared victims who were coerced into prostitution, at times kept awake for days through the administration of crack cocaine, the act itself a gruesome marathon without respite, and the Waterford Police Department, alongside the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office, brought the scope of his operation to light. This case, which began to unravel in December, highlighted the arrest in November and was further detailed in a news release where Bland's previous conviction history dating back decades was also revealed, according to details from The Oakland Press.
The charges against Bland included two counts of prostitution/transporting a person, controlled substance delivery or manufacture less than 50 grams, and two counts of bribery of a witness, among others, leading to the 10-25 years prison sentence handed to him on April 28, as detailed in court records. Bland had initially faced two counts of engaging in a human trafficking enterprise resulting in injury/commercial sexual activity however, three additional charges were filed later considering the rampant severity of his actions, added to hold him accountable for the breadth of his crimes, the additional information was reported by FOX 2 Detroit.
Although Bland did not plead guilty, opting instead for a no contest plea, this type of plea is treated as an admission of guilt for the purposes of sentencing. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald previously stated that Bland used violence and the lure of narcotics such as crack cocaine to maintain a tight grip on his victims who were trafficked for sex "sometimes for multiple days at a time," as mentioned on CBS News Detroit.
