A South Ozone Park woman who failed to show for her Supreme Court arraignment six months ago was busted and indicted for sex trafficking another woman.
Adona Elmore, 36, of 135th Place allegedly drugged, assaulted and forced her victim to trade sex for cash, and she is now facing bail jumping charges as well.
Elmore was originally arrested in October 2018 during a traffic stop and was allegedly found to be in possession of the victim’s driver’s license and credit card. She was arraigned on a criminal court complaint, charging her with, among other crimes, assault and grand larceny. Following a police investigation a Queens Grand Jury charged Elmore in a 24-count indictment including sex trafficking and promoting prostitution.
According to the charges, the 34-year-old victim became homeless and moved in with Elmore in early 2018. In exchange for a place to stay, Elmore allegedly forced the woman to trade sex with strangers for cash and repeatedly beat and drugged the victim to make sure she continued prostituting herself.
She was scheduled to appear before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Peter Vallone, Jr. on April 12, but failed to appear.
“The defendant, who was out on $5,000 bond/$2,500 cash bail following her initial October 2018 arrest for allegedly stealing from the victim, showed her true disdain for the justice system when she failed to appear for her scheduled 2019 Supreme Court arraignment,” Acting District Attorney John M. Ryan said. “A warrant was issued for her arrest.”
The NYPD arrested Elmore several weeks ago and she was once again arraigned before Justice Vallone Thursday, where he added first-degree bail jumping to the slew of other charges.
If convicted, Elmore faces seven years in prison on the bail jumping charge. She faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on the sex trafficking charges, according to the Queens DA’s office.
“The defendant in this case is accused of being a pimp and victimizing another woman through physical assault, drugs and intimidation in order to force her to have sex with strangers for money, which the victim was then required to turn over to the defendant,” Ryan said. “Prostitution is far from being a victimless crime. It is degrading, abusive and oftentimes violent and can lead to emotional and physical scarring for the victim.”
Justice Vallone ordered the defendant to return to court Dec. 20.
