WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2005

D.A. BROWN: QUEENS PIMP SENTENCED TO UP TO SIXTY-THREE MONTHS IN STATE PRISON FOR PROSTITUTING 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Jamaica, Queens, man has been sentenced to up to sixty-three months in state prison for prostituting a 14-year-old girl.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has admitted to recruiting a 14-year-old girl into a life of prostitution and turning her into a sexual vending machine. His imprisonment is just punishment for a terrible crime -- degrading a vulnerable young woman, eroding her humanity and destroying her hope.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Tyrone Frank (a/k/a Tyrone Johnson), 20, of 179-24 137th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The defendant pleaded guilty on August 13, 2003, to Promoting Prostitution in the Second Degree and admitted that he did advance and profit from prostitution of a person less than 16 years old. The defendant was sentenced on September 2, 2005, to 21 months to 63 months in state prison by Queens Supreme Court Justice James P. Griffin.

District Attorney Brown noted that after pleading guilty in 2003, he was arrested in Pennsylvania and sentenced to approximately two years in prison for criminal trespass and criminal possession of a weapon. Following the completion of his sentence in Pennsylvania in August 2005 the defendant was extradited back to New York.

According to District Attorney Brown, the defendant was arrested in New York on the promoting prostitution charge in March 2003. According to the complaint, had been observed by a uniformed police office from the 108th Precinct standing at 42nd Road and 27th Street, a prostitution prone location, after midnight on February 20, 2003, and in close proximity to a 14-year-old girl, who had just approached a minivan and opened the passenger-side door. When the police officer and the defendant made eye contact, the defendant repeatedly told the 14-year-old girl to run. Hearing the shouts and seeing the police officer, the girl jumped into the minivan and the car drove away. At the time of his arrest, the defendant admitted that he was the girl’s pimp.

The investigation was conducted by Sergeant Scott Stelmok, Sergeant David Porter and Police Officer Andrew J. Erato, all assigned to the NYPD’s 108th Precinct.

Assistant District Attorney Anthony M. Communiello, Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.