OAKLAND — A person who served 10 years in jail for human trafficking was seen in early 2023 throwing a “kicking and screaming” girl into the trunk of his Mercedes in a neighborhood recognized for prostitution.
However 42-year-old Jason Nious didn’t face felony costs in that incident, nor two months later when prosecutors say he was pulled over with a “young woman, possibly a minor,” in the identical neighborhood. It wasn’t till September 2024, when Nious was allegedly arrested with a gun whereas hanging out with a homicide suspect that the federal and native authorities introduced severe costs in opposition to him.
Now, Nious has been charged in state and federal court docket with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Each circumstances stem from the identical Sept. 18 incident, the newest of 10 arrests Nious has had since being launched from jail for human trafficking in 2021, in response to court docket data.
The federal firearm cost, filed Dec. 12, carries a most 15-year penalty. Nious was out on bail within the gun case filed by the Alameda County District Lawyer’s workplace when he was arrested on a federal warrant. Now federal prosecutors have moved to maintain him behind bars with out bail, arguing he represents a hazard to ladies within the metropolis’s most infamous high-prostitution space.
“The defendant’s criminal conduct spans decades and has become increasingly violent—and that record does not even capture the fact that the defendant has repeatedly been stopped by law enforcement on the Oakland blade after engaging in conduct such as shoving women into car trunks,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Ivana Djak wrote of Nious in a authorized submitting. “The community, and vulnerable women in particular, are not safe when the defendant is not in custody.”
The alleged kidnapping try occurred on Feb. 3, 2023, on the 1500 block of fifteenth Avenue, in broad daylight. It was round 11 a.m. when Nious allegedly pressured a “kicking and screaming” girl into the trunk of his Mercedes, inflicting such a scene that eyewitnesses started to tug their telephones and movie the incident, police stated in court docket filings.
When an Oakland officer arrived, the girl was nonetheless there, and appeared raveled, in response to police. She refused to supply a press release. An Oakland intercourse crimes investigator was referred to as in to see whether or not this was an try and pressure the sufferer into prostitution, and located surveillance digicam footage confirming what had occurred, however Nious was by no means charged, in response to police and court docket data.
Then, in April 2023, prosecutors wrote that the identical officer who’d responded to the alleged kidnapping pulled over Nious’ Mercedes to seek out him and a feminine inside. Federal prosecutors wrote in court docket filings that the passenger was a “young woman, possibly a minor” who was uncooperative with the officer. Police apparently by no means recognized her and nothing got here of the incident, data present.
That very same month, county prosecutors filed a misdemeanor marijuana possession cost in opposition to Nious, however dismissed it in June 2023, data present. He was additionally charged with failing to register as a intercourse offender in June 2024, however that cost was additionally dismissed, one week after his gun arrest, data present.
The gun arrest occurred on Sept. 18. Police have been really there to arrest a 21-year-old homicide suspect who Nious was with that day. They took the youthful man into custody on 1500 sixth Avenue — one mile away from the place the alleged kidnapping occurred — and searched each males.
Police say they discovered two pistols in the course of the arrest. One within the 21-year-old’s Infiniti and one in Nious’ Mercedes, in response to court docket filings. The 21-year-old suspect prevented a homicide cost — prosecutors ended up charging one other man, Keyante Reed, in that case — however was charged with possessing the pistol, data present.
Within the movement to detain Nious, federal prosecutors stated that Oakland police and the FBI have been becoming a member of collectively to “combat violence” in a stretch alongside Worldwide Boulevard often known as “The Blade,” a slang time period for an space the place street-walking intercourse employees congregate.
“OPD Officers and FBI agents…have seen the defendant on or near the Oakland blade, as well as a well-known blade in Salinas, on multiple occasions,” Djak wrote.
Initially Printed: December 23, 2024 at 1:07 PM PST
