Defendant charged with trafficking women bribed witnesses, feds say

Former Delaware death row inmate Isaiah McCoy has been in custody at the Federal Detention Center since his arrest in January for sex trafficking. McCoy has chosen to represent himself and insisted on having all of the evidence the government normally shares only with defense lawyers sent to him at the FDC.

Federal prosecutors are asking the court to sanction McCoy for what they say are his repeated violations of an order prohibiting him from sharing or disclosing information in the records about alleged victims. They say McCoy has been using the protected information to contact, intimidate and bribe witnesses from his cell at the FDC using a contraband cellphone and through associates, including one of his brothers.

McCoy had been charged with trafficking seven women for prostitution, identified in a February indictment only as adult females 1-7. A federal grand jury returned a new indictment Thursday charging McCoy with additional counts of trafficking a minor female for prostitution, using a minor female to produce child pornography, and obstruction.

Investigators say in court records that they suspected McCoy of using a contraband cellphone after they intercepted a telephone conversation in which a woman told McCoy’s wife that McCoy had contacted her on a non-FDC telephone.

They say their suspicion was confirmed in an intercepted telephone conversation between one of McCoy’s brothers and McCoy associate Jonathan Cadet, following Cadet’s arrest for threatening a witness. Cadet is charged with obstruction and witness tampering.

Investigators say a Homeland Security Investigations special agent was listening in on a conversation when another McCoy associate told the witnesses that McCoy was offering $50,000 for witnesses to recant their statements.

Another witness reported to investigators that McCoy had contacted her by Facebook. The contact came from a cellphone FDC officials later seized from McCoy’s cellmate. The witness said McCoy arranged to have pizza and drugs delivered to her hotel room and instructed her to say she was not forced into prostitution in an interview McCoy had arranged with a news reporter.

After the reporter’s story was published, McCoy sent a two-page letter to the court asking for a hearing due to “recent developments.” U.S. District Senior Judge Susan Oki Mollway denied McCoy’s request because, she said, she couldn’t determine what outcome McCoy was seeking.