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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
What happened
A 12 year old girls, was abducted from Washington , DC and taken to Atlantic City, N.J., to work as a prostitute. According to trafficker’s plea agreement, he took her there for a weekend where he had her work as a prostitute and taking all the money she earned. The girl had been reported missing on May 26, 2010. The girl was rescued on June 7, 2010, from a Laurel motel room by the task force after she called a relative when the trafficker was out. She told police that the trafficker had said they would have sex when he returned. The trafficker, who was arrested when he returned to the motel, initially claimed he thought the girl was 22 and denied having sex with her. He later admitted that he picked her up on the street in Washington and paid her for sex in the back seat of his car. He recruited her to work for him as a prostitute and then drove her to Atlantic City, where she performed multiple sex acts with adult males, according to his plea agreement. (US district judge) A federal judge in Baltimore has sentenced to a prison for transporting the girl across state lines to engage in prostitution. He was to serve 121 months in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release. The trafficker pleaded guilty in March. On his release from prison, he must also register as a sex offender where he lives, works and goes to school.
Response and intervention
The victim was rescued by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes FBI, Anne Arundel County Police Department, and Maryland State Police and Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office. The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. No further information available The girl called a relative from the motel room while the trafficker was out.