A South Carolina disc jockey facing human trafficking and child sex crimes charges lured teen girls via social media, asked them to hand out his flyers and paid them for sex, police records say.
The documents, obtained by Florence’s WMBF News, detail Jason Roger Pope‘s past run-ins with law enforcement, dozens of them dating back to December 2011.
Pope, also known as DJ Kidd, was arrested in late August and charged with three counts of trafficking in persons, three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and a count each of kidnapping and second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He’s also accused of promoting the prostituting of a minor.
Pope appeared in court Monday, where his attorney unexpectedly withdrew his request for a bond hearing.
Florence County Sheriff’s Office reports include accounts from multiple underage victims who accuse Pope, 40, of exploiting them for sex. At least three reports also name Pope as the victim, according to the outlet.
One of the earliest allegations against the DJ came in December 2011 when a 13-year-old girl told deputies she had unprotected sex with Pope and later claimed she learned he had the HIV/AIDS virus. The girl said a friend introduced her to the local party promoter, who gave her drugs and alcohol so that she would have sex with him, per an account WMBF gave of the report.
Fast-forward six years to Dec. 13, 2017, when a young teen threatened to take her own life. According to an FCSO report, the victim tolds deputies Pope had been paying her for sex and blackmailing her for sexual favors since late September. She said that while most of the sex was consensual, she believed Pope, who’s accused of having sex with lots of girls between 15- and 16-years-old, had “brainwashed her and took advantage of her.”
Jason Roger Pope (left) appeared in court Monday, where his attorney unexpectedly withdrew his request for a bond hearing. (Photo: WBTW / video screenshot)
Authorities also said Pope would contact the teens to pass around flyers promoting him as a DJ for parties, then bribe them with cash or drugs.
In May 2018, a woman contacted police to say that Pope had been chatting with her 15-year-old daughter on Facebook and Snapchat, adding that the suspect seemed to be luring young girls by offering them prizes via social media.
Even a relative of Pope’s tipped off police about his alleged dirty deeds that same month. The unnamed family member said that Pope paid girls for sex, and would then post about it online, an incident report showed. Screenshots of porn images were also saved, according to the relative, which authorities later viewed and found to be “sexually explicit in nature.”
Photos posted to the suspect’s Facebook page, which is still active, shows Pope posing and partying with mostly young African-American women in an album titled, “DJ KID (PARTIES & GIRLS — Part 1).” In one of the images, he’s seen grabbing a young woman by the buttocks as she straddles him in her underwear. In another, Pope is tongue kissing a topless young woman on his bed, while a separate photo shows him pulling another girl’s pants down, exposing her thong.
According to a Facebook screenshot, Pope reportedly once bragged that “I’m 36 with 693 BODIES (All Black females), WBU?”
A police report from September 2018 shows two missing girls, 14 and 16 years old, were discovered hiding out at Pope’s home, where deputies also found marijuana and over $1,500 in cash.
A separate report filed April 17, 2019, stated that police responded to a local Zaxby’s restaurant for a harassment complaint. The manager told police that Pope had come by the previous day to pick up an employee, who got into a spat with another restaurant worker.
During the argument, Pope allegedly got out of his car and threatened to come back and shoot up the restaurant and “take care of everyone,” the police report stated.
Three other FCSO reports name Pope, 40, as the victim of multiple thefts on his property, including one where $500 in cash was stolen from his car.
The accused DJ remains in the Florence County Jail without bond.
