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Jimmie Gardner, a youth motivational speaker and the brother-in-law of twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, has been arrested on costs of human trafficking.
Gardner, 57, was taken into custody by Tampa Police after a 16-year-old sufferer reported that she had been coerced into sexual acts and bodily assaulted by Gardner on the Renaissance Resort at Worldwide Plaza.
The Tampa Police Division detailed the arrest in a latest press launch, stating that the incident occurred within the early hours of November 17, 2023.
In line with the sufferer’s account, Gardner invited her to his lodge room and provided her cash for sexual acts. The scenario escalated when the sufferer refused, resulting in a bodily altercation the place Gardner allegedly choked her.
Gardner, who was wrongly convicted of sexual assault in 1987 and exonerated in 2016 after 27 years of “wrongful imprisonment,” is at the moment married to Georgia Federal Decide Leslie Abrams Gardner.
Since his launch, Gardner has been allegedly energetic as a motivational speaker, specializing in emotional intelligence coaching for college kids and previously incarcerated people, in response to the press launch.
He’s scheduled to face a choose in first look courtroom in Tampa on Friday.
The fees in opposition to Gardner embody one felony rely of human trafficking for business sexual exercise involving a sufferer below 18, one felony rely of lewd or lascivious touching of a minor aged 16 or 17 by an individual 24 years of age or older, and one misdemeanor rely of battery.
Following his arrest, Gardner was taken to Orient Highway Jail in Hillsborough County, the place he’s being held with no bond. The Tampa Police Division has confirmed that the investigation stays energetic and that further info will likely be supplied because it turns into obtainable.
The sufferer has been related with the Tampa Police Sufferer Advocate and different group assets.
Stacey Abrams didn’t instantly reply to The Gateway Pundit’s request for remark.
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