Mark Pinnock, Witness Intimidation, Massachusetts 2023

A Boston man has pleaded guilty to witness intimidation after attempting to prevent a victim from testifying against him in a federal proceeding.

Mark Pinnock, 32, pleaded guilty to one count of witness intimidation in U.S. District Court. Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for January 5, 2023.

Pinnock was on federal supervised release for sex trafficking at the time of the offense. He was previously convicted of sex trafficking in 2014 and sentenced to eight years in prison. In 2022, he was released and under federal supervision while working as an Amazon driver.

While on supervised release, a victim reported to local law enforcement that Pinnock exposed himself to her while delivering a package to the condominium complex where she worked as a custodian.

One week before a hearing to adjudicate Pinnock’s alleged offense, he sent a co-conspirator to the condominium complex on his behalf. The co-conspirator told the victim not to go to court and stood with his hand in his pocket as if he had something in it.

Pinnock also used an encrypted messaging application to send an anonymous message to the security officer at the complex to ‘let the cleaning lady know’ she would be arrested by immigration officials if she were to go to court.

Finally, Pinnock placed three separate phone calls to immigration officials in an attempt to have the victim detained for being unlawfully present in the United States. In the calls to immigration officials, Pinnock falsely claimed that he had heard the victim was gang-affiliated, among other things.

The charge of witness intimidation carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

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