FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 29, 2022
Brooklyn Man Indicted for Sex Trafficking of Teenage Girl
Defendant Allegedly Lured Victim to New York from Ohio with Promise of Video Shoots
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Brooklyn man has been arraigned on a 10-count indictment in which he is charged with sex trafficking, promoting prostitution and related charges for the alleged sex trafficking of an 18-year-old girl.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “We allege that this defendant lured a young woman from out of state to come to Brooklyn under false pretenses, then trafficked her for money in exchange for sex. I am committed to rescuing and protecting our at-risk teens from predators who seek to harm and exploit them.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Allen Barrington, 37, of East Flatbush, Brooklyn. He was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Guy Mangano on an indictment in which he is charged with two counts of sex trafficking, one count of attempted sex trafficking, one count of second-degree promoting prostitution, two counts of third- and fourth- degree promoting prostitution, one count of third-degree assault and one count of third-degree attempted assault. He was ordered held without bail and to return to court on August 16, 2022.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on June 3, 2022, the defendant allegedly responded to an online website posted on by an 18-year-old girl who was living in Ohio. He allegedly offered to pay for a Greyhound bus ticket for her to visit New York where he would help her get started in nude modeling on video.
When the girl arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on June 5, 2022, he allegedly picked her up and brought her to an apartment in East New York, Brooklyn, where there was another girl that the defendant had recruited from Illinois to engage in prostitution. He allegedly told her she had to work in prostitution and took her to a track in East New York. When the victim refused, allegedly telling the defendant that this was not the agreement, the defendant threatened the victim and threatened to harm her grandparents back in Ohio.
It is alleged that, between June 5, 2022 and June 18, 2022, in addition to forcing her to work in prostitution in East Flatbush and East New York, the defendant was physically violent towards the victim and at one point attempted to taser her. She was allegedly forced to engage in prostitution on the track in East New York and was not allowed to stop until she earned a quota set by the defendant. The defendant allegedly took photos of the victim and the other woman and posted them on websites offering prostitution services.
Furthermore, it is alleged, the victim walked into the 75th precinct to report the defendant on June 17, 2022. He was arrested in Ohio on July 6, 2022 and was extradited to Brooklyn on July 26, 2022.
The case was investigated by Detective Courtney Thorpe of the New York City Police Department’s Human Trafficking Squad, under the supervision of Sergeant Robert Duplessis, Lieutenant Amy Capogna and Captain Thomas Milano.
The District Attorney thanked Detective Christina Chavez and Detective Nicholas Cox of the Peoria, Illinois Police Department, Major Jeff Allen and Agent Kelly Jankowski from the Mahoning Valley Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, Eastern District of New York Probation Officer Dwight Brown and the Ohio State Highway Patrol for their assistance in the investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney David Weiss, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Unit, along with Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Iorio, with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Aurora Martinez and VSU/HT Social Worker Kirsty Carroll, under the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Chief of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau.
#
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt