6 women accused Seattle's 'CHOP warlord' of sex trafficking, police of doing 'virtually nothing'

A number of women have accused the Seattle hip-hop artist who gained national attention in 2020 as the self-appointed leader of the city’s autonomous zone, or CHOP, of sex trafficking and allege the police of neglecting their duties in their handling of the case.

According to a Seattle Times investigation, at least eight people – six women and the parents of two others – have told Seattle police that local musician Solomon “Raz” Simone of ensnaring them in a multistate sex trafficking scheme.

According to stories collected by William Guyer, then vice a detective with the department, Simone allegedly lured women into with promises of love and lucrative jobs, then coerced them into sex work in Seattle, New York, Portland, Las Vegas and other cities.

They said the rapper required them to earn $1,000 a day, isolated them from their families, tracked their movements and controlled their diets. Failure to comply resulted in physical abuse or even imprisonment for days in "claustrophobic sleeping containers.”

The first woman approached authorities in 2017 but some of the alleged crimes date back to 2012, according to the report. Simone has denied all allegations and police never charged or arrested him for the alleged crimes. The FBI has also been investigating Simone since 2021 after receiving Guyer’s notes but has not taken any action.

Simone began to find some success as a musician, opening a small tour with Macklemore and performing at music festivals. But he entered the national spotlight in 2020 when he positioned himself as leader of Seattle’s autonomous zone, which became known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or CHOP, after videos of him pulling a gun out of the trunk of his white Tesla went viral.

The Seattle Times reports that texts between Simone and city authorities, including the mayor’s office, lent him an air of credibility.

In January, five of the women filed a lawsuit against Simone and his record label, alleging he conspired to “ensnare, imprison and exploit” them for profit. They added the Seattle Police Department as a defendant in September for negligent investigation of their claims.

The report notes that sex trafficking laws tend to favor cases that involve juvenile witnesses, who cannot consent to sex. For adults, a prosecutor has a higher burden of proof and must present evidence there has been force, fraud or coercion.

“That does not mean the adult isn’t a victim, but the evidence of harm — like signs of physical and emotional abuse that often leave little trace — must be explicit,” says the article.