Man Accused Of Human Trafficking Arrested Again After Being Accused Of Violating Bond Terms

A Choctaw man accused of human trafficking was arrested last week and returned to the Oklahoma County Detention Center after only a week of freedom. 

A judge allowed Joel French to be released on a $500,000 cash bond last month.

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting French. They said he should have never been released from jail in the first place.

Last December, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics agents arrested French at his Choctaw home on complaints of human trafficking and pandering.

Brian Bates, the operator of JohnTV.com, canvased French's neighborhood with flyers warning residents of French’s alleged illegal business. At the time, the accused pimp was being held in jail on a $1 million bond.

“A million dollar bond in Oklahoma County is a big bond,” Bates said. “So, this is somebody they are taking off the streets.”

A multi-county grand jury indicted French on 10 counts of human trafficking. His attorneys went before a judge to request his bond be lowered to $500,000, despite French’s reputation on the streets.

“In OBN’s own probable cause affidavit, it mentions that he uses coercion and force to maintain control over his organization,” Bates said. 

French was released from jail in April and the paperwork he signed stated he was on GPS monitoring and could not associate with anyone other than his immediate family.

A week after French agreed to the terms, he was arrested for violating them. His attorneys also filed a motion to withdraw from the case on the same day of his arrest.

The attorney general’s office sent News 9 a statement regarding French’s subsequent arrest:

“We respectfully disagreed with the judge’s decision to lower the bond. However, she appropriately placed conditions when French bonded out, including confining him to house arrest, among others. He violated those conditions and is now back in jail. We agree with the judge’s decision to now hold him on no bond.”

Court records showed French was arraigned for the violation of bond conditions arrest on Thursday.