Convicted pimp could get 500 years

SAN BERNARDINO — Reginald E. Christopher, suspected of being onetime president of the Watergate Crips gang, faces 500 years in prison after being the first-ever person convicted in San Bernardino County for pimping a child.

Christopher, 47, will be sentenced Friday at the West Valley Court in Rancho Cucamonga.

Christopher, who had spent over a quarter century in prison for robbery, kidnapping and rape, was paroled in 2006. He was arrested one final time in October 2008 in Montclair for recruiting a 13-year-old girl as a prostitute.

Police reports say Christopher also frequently stopped at a Riverside-area park-and-ride and engaged in sex with the preteen victim known in the media as Babyface13.

According to police reports, Christopher was caught when he forced her to recruit a second prostitute for his stable. That recruit turned out to be an undercover policewoman.

Locked up again, Christopher this time faced the prospect of going up against a newly formed task force called the Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation. Facing felony charges of one count of pimping a minor under 16, two counts of lewd acts upon a child, two counts of oral copulation of a person under 14, plus three prior convictions, he was eventually found guilty on all counts and will be sentenced as a three strikes offender.

“Obviously, it was the appropriate verdict based on the evidence,” said assistant district attorney Karen Schmauss, who prosected the case.

Christopher’s gang name was Snoop or Snoopy. He was also a reported member of the Blue Note Crips gang. Though he was on parole, he managed to escape detection while wearing a GPS device.

Reports say that Babyface13, now 15, was sent to a group home out of California. She returned to the state through a foster home, but left. Schmauss said her testimony was an important factor in Christopher’s conviction.