Convicted pimp Anthony "Mack" Terry was sentenced to 20 years in prison April 29, 2011. Terry, whose defense was that he was a drug dealer, not a pimp, was convicted in March 2011 of two counts of promoting the commercial sex abuse of a minor, second-degree promoting prostitution, and witness tampering. King County Superior Court Judge Beth Andrus had just handed down the 20-year prison sentence when the courtroom phone rang. On the line was the teenage victim Terry had pimped out and later asked to lie for him in a series of recorded phone calls he made from inside the King County Jail. "I just want to say I was never a victim, and Anthony Terry was never my pimp," said the woman, whose call was put on the Court's speaker phone. The woman was 18 at the time of the sentencing but was 17 when Terry was twice arrested for pimping her out. Judge Andrus had already heard the woman's denials during Terry's bench trial, but apparently found them unpersuasive. In March 2011, Judge Andrus found Terry guilty of two counts of promoting the commercial sex abuse of a minor, second-degree promoting prostitution, and witness tampering. During closing arguments in March 2011, Prosecutor O'Donnell played a series of recorded phone calls between Terry and the 17-year-old, in which Terry can be heard directing her to post photos of herself online to make money to bail him out and pay for an attorney. O'Donnell also held up a screen shot of Terry's MySpace page, which bore the words "pimp in action."
Location
United States · Seattle, Washington, USA · 2011
(location generalized to protect survivors) Response & intervention
Terry is among the first pimps in King County to be convicted and sentenced under legislation that went into effect in 2010 making promoting the commercial sex abuse of a minor a Class A felony. After his April 29, 2011 sentencing hearing, Terry’s attorney Walt Peale notified the judge that Terry planned to appeal his conviction, arguing that he (Mr. Peale) had provided ineffective counsel during the trial.
The case against Terry dates to June 2010, when a Seattle vice detective contacted a 32-year-old woman who had an ad on backpage.com and set up a "date" at Seattle's Warwick Hotel. The website is owned by Village Voice Media, the parent company of the Seattle Weekly. The woman was arrested and, working with police got Terry to return to her room on the pretext she needed more condoms. Terry showed up at her door and ran when he saw the detectives. He was arrested in a hotel hallway with three condoms in his pocket. Then, in July 2010, Seattle detectives found multiple ads for the then-17-year-old on backpage.com and set up another "date" with her at the Country Inn & Suites in Bothell. Both the girl and Terry were taken into custody at the hotel.
The minor, who had turned 18 by the time of Terry's sentencing hearing repeatedly denied being pimped out by Terry, but was apparently found not credible by the Court in light of the taped conversations and other evidence.
Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don't have a verifiable source on file yet — use “Report a problem” below to add one.