Forced Girls To Sell Sex On Streets
A Far Rockaway man who pled guilty earlier this month to forcing two teenage female runaways to work in the sex trade on the streets of Queens has been sentenced to 4 1/3 to thirteen years in prison, it was announced.
Reportedly, a Hollis man in the case involving one of the teenagers was sentenced to 3 1/2 to seven years in prison for promoting prostitution. A third defendant pled guilty to attempted assault of the young girl and will be sentenced next month to up to three years in prison.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown identified two of the defendants as Dathan (a.k.a. Budda) Davis, 28, of Seagirt Boulevard in Far Rockaway, and Harvey Hankinson, 35, of 194th Street in Hollis.
Davis pleaded guilty on Jan. 3 to two counts of third-degree promoting prostitution before Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph Zayas who imposed last Thursday, Jan. 26, the indeterminate sentence of 2 1/3 to seven years in prison on one count of promoting prostitution and a consecutive term of two to six years in prison on the second count.
Hankinson also pled guilty on Jan. 3 to third-degree promoting prostitution also before Justice Zayas, who imposed indeterminate sentence of three and one-half to seven years in prison last Thursday.
“This case is a good example as to how seriously we in Queens take cases of commercial sexual exploitation of women and children,” Brown said. “The defendants have all acknowledged their involvement in forcing young girls into lives of degradation that also exposes them to the risk of being seriously injured. As such, the prison terms being imposed by the court are more than warranted.”
The case began in May 2009 when the NYPD Vice Enforcement Division began conducting a proactive undercover investigation with the assistance of the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau at the Office Lounge and Restaurant located at 115-55 Lefferts Blvd. in South Ozone Park, where “prostitution nights” were allegedly being held.
In executing a search warrant at the Office Lounge on May 15, 2009, Davis and Hankinson were arrested for prostituting a 17-year-old female runaway. Thereafter, the Vice’s Major Case Squad discovered a 14-year-old girl whom Davis had picked up in early January 2009 and had working as a prostitute for him for several weeks before she managed to escape. Thereafter, Davis and Hankinson allegedly abducted the 14-year-old in February 2009 and held her against her will and physically assaulted her for running away.
Dathan Davis’s brother, Trashawn Davis, 34, of Broad Street in Providence, R.I., was arrested on Jan. 8 and charged with assaulting the 14- year-old victim by placing a belt around her neck and choking her until she passed out.
The incident occurred after she had run away and Davis and Hankinson had forcibly returned her to Queens County.
Trashawn Davis pleaded guilty on Jan. 3 to second-degree attempted assault before Justice Zayas and will be sentenced to 1 1/2 to three years in prison when sentenced on Feb. 28.
As the case against Dathan Davis and Hankinson progressed, Davis, who had been served at the time of his arrest in May 2009 with an order of protection directing him to stay away from the 14-year-old, met with the girl sometime between Mar. 1 and apr. 4, 2010, and offered to share the proceeds of a lawsuit he would bring against the City of New York if she disappeared or otherwise avoided appearing as a witness at his upcoming trial.
It is further alleged that Davis had the girl call the case detective and tell him that she was unwilling to testify.
The Office Lounge was closed down by the NYPD Civil Enforcement
Unit under the Nuisance Abatement Law.
The investigations were conducted by detectives assigned to the NYPD Vice Enforcement Division’s Major Case Squad and Queens Vice Squad in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau.
Assistant District Attorney Jessica Melton, of the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau, is prosecuting the cases, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Anthony M. Communiello, bureau 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.
