WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2005                                      

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QUEENS MOTEL PADLOCKED IN PROSTITUTION CRACKDOWN
Cited as Public Nuisance Following Undercover Operation and Pre-Dawn Raid

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Department of Buildings Commissioner Patricia J. Lancaster and Department of Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark, announced today that a Springfield Gardens motel near JFK International Airport that allegedly served as a haven for prostitutes and their pimps has been shut down and padlocked under a court order sought by the NYPD and the District Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney Brown identified the motel as the Executive Motor Inn, a 44-room motel located at 151-67 North Conduit Avenue in Springfield Gardens, Queens. The Inn was declared a public nuisance and ordered closed by Queens Supreme Court Justice Martin J. Schulman late last week following a pre-dawn raid during which the motel’s night clerk was arrested along with a 41-year-old alleged “John” found in the company of a 15-year-old runaway in one of the motel’s rooms.

District Attorney Brown said, “The Executive Motor Inn was a motel where guests arrived without luggage and stayed for only a few hours at best, registration cards were signed with names like ‘Mary Poppins’ and ‘Betty Boop’ and four or five men a night were seen coming in and out of the rooms. It was run not as a motel, but rather as an unabashed brothel catering to pimps and prostitutes – some of whom were underage and runaways.”

The District Attorney added, “Numerous complaints were received by the NYPD and my office over the past few months from area residents about the activities at the motel and a burgeoning street-walking problem in the area. We are committed to working with the community in eliminating crime and business practices that promote criminal activity. Toward that end scores of arrests have been made at all hours of the day and night of young women – and even children as young as 13 years of age – and their pimps for prostitution-related offenses in and around the motel. If allowed to continue, the activity would clearly have eroded the neighborhood’s quality of life and created an atmosphere in which more serious crimes would have been committed. Today, we issue a clear message – businesses that allow prostitution or other illegal activity to occur on their premises are at risk of being shut down.”

Police Commissioner Kelly said, “The Executive Motor Inn was a blight on a good neighborhood. Thanks to excellent police work, it is closed and won’t be missed.”

Buildings Commissioner Lancaster said, “Trafficking in drugs and prostitution are crimes against the community, and we must fight them as a community. The Department of Buildings welcomed the opportunity to assist Queens District Attorney Brown’s office and the NYPD in shutting down the Executive Motor Inn and to be a part of the inter-agency team that uses its regulatory powers to rid NYC's neighborhoods of dangerous establishments.”

Finance Commissioner Stark said, “Tax cheating is often at the heart of other illegal activity, and the sex trade is no different. We will take a close look at the records we seized and work with District Attorney Brown to recoup any tax money owed to New York City. I want to thank him for his effort on this case.”

District Attorney Brown said that a task force of police officers and investigators from his office, together with representatives of the New York City Departments of Buildings and Finance, raided the premises during the pre-dawn hours of December 10, 2005. Arrested were:

▸ Erickson J. Bryant, 67, of 107-09 172nd Street in Queens, who works as the Inn’s night clerk. He is accused of allowing an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute to book rooms using aliases – despite the requirements of the General Business Law that the hotel keep a register of guests – and with allowing an individual who he thought to be a prostitute to set up shop in the hotel. Bryant was charged with Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, Promoting Prostitution in the Fourth Degree and Permitting Prostitution. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.

▸ Philip Dixon, 41, of 128-11 147th Street in Queens, was allegedly found in a room in the hotel with a 15-year-old runaway he reportedly had picked up two blocks away. Dixon was charged with Rape in the Third Degree, Endangering the Welfare of a Child, Patronizing a Prostitute in the Third Degree and Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.

According to the District Attorney, during the last several months, undercover police officers posing as prostitutes and customers visited the Executive Motor Inn and witnessed various acts of illegal activity on the premises. In one alleged instance, a female undercover officer posing as a prostitute rented a room around midnight and told the front desk clerk that one of her regular “clients” could not be reached and asked the clerk to direct the client when he arrived to her room. Although the clerk informed her that she was not allowed to bring “tricks” to the motel, he nonetheless allegedly directed the purported client – also an undercover detective – to the room. In another instance, a male undercover officer posing as a customer allegedly approached the motel’s front desk and told the clerk that he had an appointment with a “hooker” at 1:00 a.m. in room 340 and wanted to know how to get there. The clerk is alleged to have directed him to the room.

Other recent cases involving prostitution in and around the Executive Motor Inn include:

▸ On November 1, 2005, David Allsop, 22, of 30-11 Dwight Avenue in Far Rockaway, was convicted at trial of endangering the welfare of a child by prostituting a 13-year-old girl inside the Executive Inn in January 2005. Allsop is facing a year in jail when he is sentenced on January 4, 2006.

▸ Anthony Dominguez, 22, of 177-25 Sayres Avenue in Queens, was charged on December 3, 2005, with kidnapping, promoting prostitution, criminal sex act and endangering the welfare of a 15-year-old girl who ran away from her home in Suffolk County by recruiting her to work as a prostitute after having sex with her at the Executive Motor Inn. Melissa Austin 18, of 109-19 174 Street in Queens, who allegedly worked as a prostitute in Dominguez’s stable, was also charged with endangering the girl’s welfare by having her work along side her as a prostitute in the vicinity of the Executive Motor Inn, as well as in Atlantic City. Both cases are pending.

▸ Ariel Edwards, 17, of 114-54 175 Place in Queens, was charged on November 2, 2005 with promoting prostitution, sexual misconduct, endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy, for having sex with a 15-year-old girl on multiple occasions and conspiring with another person to have the girl work as a prostitute in the vicinity of the Executive Motor Inn. It is alleged that Edwards instructed the girl to ask all potential customers if he was a pimp or a police officer, and if the customer said he was neither, she should get into the customer’s car. The case is pending.

District Attorney Brown added, “The problem of child prostitution and the sexual exploitation of children is serious – and it is growing. During 2004 alone, 150 girls under the age of 17 were arrested in New York City for prostitution – 53 of them in Queens. We find ourselves prosecuting at least two new cases each month against individuals who are engaged in promoting underage prostitution. Since the year 2000 my office has prosecuted 63 pimps for prostituting young girls under the age of 19, including 35 pimps for prostituting girls under the age of 16. The sexual exploitation of children by prostituting them is a modern day version of slavery. It destroys their innocence, their hopes and their dreams. It cannot be tolerated.”

The December 10th raid and the related law enforcement activities were funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, to investigate and prosecute commercial exploitation of children in prostitution crimes with special emphasis on protecting minors.

The raid was the result of a multi-government initiative by the Queens District Attorney’s Office, the New York City Police Department – namely, its Queens Vice Enforcement and its Child Recovery Unit and Juvenile Crime Squad, Patrol Bureau Queens South, 113th Precinct, and Queens South Task Force – the New York City Departments of Finance and Buildings and Mount Sinai Hospital’s Sexual Assault Victims Intervention (SAVI) Program.

The NYPD component of the investigation was conducted by Patrol Borough Queens South, which is under the supervision of Assistant Chief Thomas V. Dale; the 113th Precinct, which is under the supervision of Deputy Inspector Edward J. Mullen; Queens South Task Force, which is under the supervision of Captain Alexander J. Laera; Queens Juvenile Crime Squad which is under the supervision of Lieutenant Marla Rose; and Queens Vice Enforcement Squad which is under the supervision of Captain Michael E. Ameri and the overall supervision of Inspector James P. O’Neil, Vice Enforcement Division, and the overall supervision of Chief Douglas Zeigler, of the Organized Crime Control Bureau.

District Attorney Brown’s Special Proceedings Bureau is prosecuting the cases under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Anthony M. Communiello, Chief, and Oscar W. Ruiz, Deputy 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 complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.