A Chinese woman arrested last year in a human trafficking case is back in Lafayette jail today.
Xufang Ou, 34, was first arrested in February 2019 and booked with human trafficking and four counts of pandering. Her bond was set at $1,050,000. Then in March 2019 she was formally charged via bill of information with one count of human trafficking and two counts felony pandering.
Days after the bill of information was filed, her attorneys, Alfred Boustany II and Alfred Boustany III, filed a motion with the court to reduce her bond because "the offense charged is not so serious as to justify" the million-dollar bond. It is not clear which judge agreed, but following a hearing her bond was reduced to $6,250 on the two pandering charges, and $100,000 on the trafficking charge.
Ou posted her bond using a local bail bonds service and was released, court records show.
Then, on February 13 of this year, there was a pre-trial hearing and Ou did not appear. A bench warrant was issued for her arrest, records show.
Court records show she was arrested by ICE and was being held in an ICE detention center in New Jersey. Her bondsman surrendered her to Lafayette Parish on March 12, records show.
Ou was booked into LPCC on April 11, records there show. She is being held on three bench warrants, with no bond set for her release.
There is a court hearing set for May 28.
Related Stories:
