East Flatbush Man Sex Trafficked 16-Year-Old Girl, DA Says

EAST FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — A man arraigned Wednesday could face more than 30 years in prison for forcing a 16-year-old girl to work in the sex trade and assaulting a woman who tried to rescue the teen, prosecutors said.

Jermaine Taylor, 34, was arraigned on a 12-count sex trafficking indictment for forcing a 16-year-old girl to have sex with other men for money for nearly a year-long period until he was caught in March. Taylor, who prosecutors said also trafficked other women, is the first person in Brooklyn to be charged under a new sex trafficking of a child statute.

“This defendant allegedly treated a young girl as a piece of property, assaulting her and forcing her to work in the sex trade," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "In Brooklyn we are committed to protecting all victims of predatory and violent behavior. We will now seek to hold him accountable for his alleged actions.”

Taylor is charged with sex trafficking of a child, sex trafficking, second- and fourth-degree promoting prostitution, third-degree rape, second- and third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Investigators found out that during the time he was forcing the 16-year-old to have sex with other men, and give hime the money, he slapped, punched and threatened to kill the teen when she told him she wanted to stop working as a prostitute. The 16-year-old was trafficked in Brooklyn and Queens multiple times between May 2018 and when she was rescued in March, prosecutors said.

In August, a 28-year-old pregnant woman who knew the victim tried to rescue the girl when they both were in the car with Taylor. But before she could, Taylor pushed the pregnant woman out of the car, hit her with his vehicle and drive away, prosecutors said. He is facing assault charges for this incident.

The new law Taylor was charged under, which was put in place in New York State in November 2018, makes it so that prosecutors do not have to prove that force, fraud or coercion was used against underage victims, thus sparing them from testifying in many cases.

Taylor was ordered held on bail of $500,000 bond or $250,000 cash and to return to court on August 7, 2019.