Innisfil Pride founder Jake Tucker was a bundle of contradictions. There was the LGBTQ community-minded philanthropist and, then, there was the ruthless and violent pimp.
Tucker, 39, was convicted of seven of 10 human trafficking and assault charges after a jury deliberated for six hours. The trial, held in Barrie, lasted two weeks. The escort agency owner had been sex trafficking two victims for years, according to CTV News.
Plans to Appeal
However, Tucker was not impressed with the verdict, which he characterized as unfair. He told CTV he plans to appeal the convictions. He was acquitted of assault, sexual assault, and assault with a weapon.
“Everybody worked hard and they were doing their jobs,” Tucker said of the jury. “I just feel like there was a lot that was overlooked.” He alleged that the criminal charges filed against him were driven by separate issues in family court.
Tucker’s legal team argued that their client was innocent and that the women were drug addicts who worked in the sex trade. They characterized the women’s evidence as unreliable and the police investigation as botched.
What the Crown Alleged
The investigation started in 2022, when a woman told police she had been sex trafficked by Tucker over many years. Detectives found another woman who said she also worked for Tucker and that he was her de facto pimp.
Prosecutors said Tucker advertised the women’s sexual services and chauffeured them to and from locations where their clients were. When they did not want to work, one woman said he drugged them. Another victim said Tucker tasered her.
In addition, the Crown charged that Tucker was in a position of trust and power. Instead, the women working for his escort business were exploited, with Tucker facilitating their sexual encounters, supplying them with drugs, and collecting the money. Prosecutors lambasted his actions as “coercive, aggressive, and violent.”
Says He Ran a Swingers’ Club
Tucker denied being a pimp and running the escort business. “Definitely not,” he said. “I actually ran a swingers’ club, and I worked for a U-Haul, and a food truck, and drove a school bus,” Tucker told CTV News outside the courthouse. “I feel like anything else would make it impossible to do.”
Tucker maintains that the whole story has not been told and that he is grateful for the support of his loved ones. “I am more than grateful to the people who have stuck beside me knowing the entirety of the story. They’ve stuck beside me from day one and they have been my rock,” he said.
He is scheduled to return to Barrie court in May to set a sentencing hearing date.
