Hiawatha man denies any sex trafficking, sexual contact with teen at hotel last May

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jarod Anderson, on trial this week for human trafficking and sexual abuse of a minor, testified Wednesday he wasn’t involved in the incidents that happened in May last year that involved a teen who told police Anderson forced her to have sex with men for money.

He did admit to picking up the 17-year-old girl in Dubuque but said it was for his friend, Tana Torres, 50, of Cedar Rapids, also charged in this case. He said he didn’t know Torres was involved with prostitution or what plans she had for teen.

Anderson, 35, of Hiawatha, who said he was self-employed, sold cellphones and helped his wife rehab a food truck, spent most of his time on May 21 and 22 with the teen and Torres at the Quality Inn hotel, but said he never saw anything like prostitution.

He stayed with Torres and the teen because he felt responsible for Torres and wanted to help her.

He never had sex with Torres or employed her as a prostitute, as she stated during her testimony Monday.

Anderson testified Torres worked for him but only sold phones and would help with “sales calls.” He thought maybe she worked for a topless maid service and advertised online.

When she stayed at hotels, he would pay for those rooms to get the points or free stays at hotels and she would pay him back, he said.

Anderson, whose trial started last week, is charged with human trafficking a minor, third-degree sexual abuse, conspiracy to commit a forcible felony, pimping and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Closing arguments in the jury trial will be Thursday in Linn County District Court.

Something ‘off’

Anderson said the teen he and Torres picked up in Dubuque was messed up — intoxicated and had a nearly empty bottle of tequila she was drinking. He knew something was “off” about her.

He said the 17-year-old, who he thought to be 19, was asking Torres about her “profile” and “what she can do and with who.” Anderson said when he realized she was talking about having sex for money, he told her that wasn’t happening.

Anderson said when he left the hotel room at some point, the teen had his phone — which he let Torres use because hers was broken — on a tripod and she was taking photos of herself in underwear.

He wanted to go to sleep and got into one of the beds and fell asleep. Anderson then awoke to the teen on top of him, having sex, and he pushed her off. Torres was fully clothed, sleeping on the other bed.

He initially said he was fully clothed on the bed but later said the teen pulled down his pants.

Anderson said he tried to go back to sleep, but the teen tried to “cuddle” with him, so he moved to a chair in the room.

Detailed testimony

During Anderson’s testimony, he recalled vivid details of what was said, clothing the teen and Torres wore, and what Torres purchased during stops a various convenience stores.

But he said he didn’t know how sexually explicit videos, photos and conversations about prostitution got on his phone, except to blame Torres, who used his phone.

Early on May 22, Anderson said he gave Torres and the teen a ride to a house in Cedar Rapids, which he said was some relative of the teen’s.

The teen and Torres testified the man was a customer who paid Anderson $550 to have sex with them.

Anderson said he dropped off the two and went to the barber.

Torres called him some time later, saying the man wanted to give them money but couldn’t send it to either women’s pay apps. Torres asked the man to send the $550 to Anderson. He said he agreed, telling her to use his wife’s Venmo, after he called and checked with her.

He picked them up, and Torres wanted to stop at liquor store to buy vodka, cigarettes, lighter and “meth pipes.” Anderson gave her his Venmo card to use “her money.”

Eventually, he went home, but Torres called him later, saying they had their nails done and were short $50. He took them money, dropped them back at the hotel and went home.

Leaving town

Some time later, Anderson said Torres called him, “panicking,” because the teen said her sister had called police, who were coming to arrest the teen on a Dubuque warrant. Torres also was worried because she had a warrant out of Missouri, Anderson said.

Torres wanted the teen out of the room, and he suggested they go to the nearby Hampton Inn. He picked up Torres, who was outside the Hampton while the teen was inside.

He and Torres went back to the Quality Inn to get the teen’s bags and then unloaded them outside a side door at the Hampton.

Anderson said they drove off and then decided to go back, but left again when they saw numerous police at the hotel. They decided to go to Iowa City, where the mother of one of his children lives.

He then got a call from Xezna Beard, who testified last week, and she was asking what he was doing with a minor at the hotel. He told her he didn’t do anything, that he was helping Torres. Anderson said he was confused about that call.

Anderson and Torres then drove to Quincy, Ill., because he had planned earlier to go there and then they went to Chicago for his phone business. When he came back to Cedar Rapids about a week or so later, he said he’d earned $13,000 from selling phones in Chicago.

It was later in June when he ran into Torres again. She had rented a condo, and he was staying with her because he was still estranged from his wife.

In July, after he left Torres, Anderson said police conducted a traffic stop, and it was “completely shocking to me” to learn he was a suspect in a sex trafficking case.

Cross-examination

Under cross-examination, Anderson continued to deny his cellphone — which had websites and 44 conversations regarding prostitution — was being used by him, as he did to police during an interview played Tuesday for jurors.

He continued to say Torres had that phone, which also happened to be the phone found on him when he was arrested in July.

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Nicole Leonard asked if he used other aliases besides Ty and Jojo, such as Tyreek Hill, but he said no.

On Anderson’s phone, there a message conversation between Hill, which included a selfie of Anderson on a message app and an unknown woman. Anderson denies it belonged to him.

In another message to a different woman, who was friends with Torres, Anderson asked her for Xanax on May 22, which is what the teen said she was taking before she came to Cedar Rapids.

Anderson again said he didn’t have his phone, that Torres had it at that time.

Leonard asked if Anderson agreed his testimony Wednesday was much different than his statement to a police investigator.

Anderson denied it, saying he just didn’t give all the details to police that he did in court Wednesday.

Leonard pointed out Anderson had never mentioned the teen got on top of him and had sex.

Anderson said it must have “slipped my mind,” and he didn’t know at that time anyone was accusing him of having sex with the teen and other crimes.

Leonard said Anderson had had to come up with something because he knew his DNA, found on the teen’s underwear, would be present. Anderson denied it.

Anderson also denied it was him having the phone message conversation with his wife regarding the $550 sent to her Venmo account.

Leonard asked him to identify numerous messages found on his phone, and Anderson denied sending or receiving the bulk of them that involved soliciting prostitution and customers.

He also denied the multiple sexually explicit videos and photos found on the phone as being his. He maintained Torres had his phone and then said numerous other people also had access to the phone.

Leonard asked if every time a crime was committed on the phone, “you didn’t have your phone.”

“No. I didn’t,” Anderson said.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com

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