Sunday, January 16, 2005

D.A. BROWN: JAMAICA MAN CHARGED WITH FORCING 13 AND 15 YEAR OLD GIRLS INTO PROSTITUTION; FACES UP TO 25 YEARS IN PRISON

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Jamaica man has been charged with abducting two underage runaway girls -- a 13-year-old from the Bronx and a 15-year-old from Suffolk County -- and forcing them to work as prostitutes after physically abusing them and raping them.

District Attorney Brown said, “According to the charges, the defendant degraded and enslaved young women by recruiting them into his prostitution operation. He is accused of violating and exploiting them by repeatedly sexually attacking and beating them and then forcing them to perform various sexual acts with scores of male customers, retaining the proceeds for himself.”

According to the District Attorney, it is charged that the defendant put his victims to “work” in the sex trade on the streets of Southeast Queens near South Road and Sutphin Boulevard and forced them to perform repeated “tricks” with male customers on the street and also in local residences and in motels and hotels.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Barrington Haffenden, 30, of 114-22 158th Street in Jamaica, Queens. The defendant has been charged with Kidnapping in the Second Degree, Criminal Sexual Act in the Second Degree, Promoting Prostitution in the Second Degree and Rape in the Second Degree and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

The District Attorney said that according to the charges the defendant forced two teenage girls -- a 13-year-old from the Bronx and a 15-year-old from Suffolk County -- to work for him as prostitutes up to seven nights a week performing sex acts for money with up to seven males each night.

It is alleged that between December 1 and December 31, 2004 the 13-year-old female and the defendant had sexual relations multiple times at the defendant’s residence and at the defendant’s mother’s residence on Linden Boulevard.

It is further alleged that between September 1, 2004 and January 12, 2005 the victim worked for the defendant as a prostitute and that the defendant told her to charge customers $50 for oral sex and $100 for sexual intercourse.

It is additionally alleged that in October 2004 inside his residence the defendant slapped the victim across the face and that between September 1 and November 20, 2004 the defendant grabbed her by her foot, dragged her on the floor and ripped her shirt off her body because she had talked to another man.

According to the charges, the 15-year-old victim ran away from home in Suffolk County on January 5, 2005 and went seeking refuge to the defendant’s residence where he raped her and thereafter forced her to work on the street as a prostitute, perform sex acts with males and then give him the proceeds. In some instances, she was picked up at the defendant’s residence by males who took her to nearby houses or hotels to engage in sex acts for cash.

District Attorney Brown said that on Thursday, January 13, 2005 about 10:30 p.m. detectives executed a court-authorized search warrant drafted by the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau at the defendant’s Jamaica residence, found the 13-year-old girl inside and arrested the defendant.

According to the District Attorney, the defendant was arraigned on Friday, January 15, 2005 in Queens Criminal Court before Judge Steven W. Paynter who ordered the defendant remanded without bail and set a return date of January 28, 2005.

The investigation was conducted by New York City Police Department Detectives Richard Soto and Carl Martello of the Vice Enforcement Division, Child Recovery Unit; Detectives Richard Santangelo and Rick Perez of the Queens Special Victims Squad under the command of Lieutenant Arthur Hall; the Missing Persons and Extradition Squad under the command of Lieutenant Joseph Williams and Suffolk County Police Department Detectives Thomas McDougal and William LeStrange.

Assistant District Attorney Susan Lee Kim of the District Attorney's Special Proceedings Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Anthony M. Communiello, Bureau Chief, and Oscar W. Ruiz, Deputy Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.

It should be noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.