A teenage girl arrested for prostitution in an Alexandria hotel told authorities her pimp took her from a group home in Chicago, gave her marijuana and later took her on a prostituting road trip from Chicago to Philadelphia, and then to the District. He used Craigslist to advertise the girl along the way.
The alleged pimp, Freddie B. Wright, was arrested late last week in Chicago, court records show. He has been charged with bringing someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution.
Andrea Powell, executive director of FAIRFund, an anti-human-trafficking group, said the case is similar to instances of human trafficking in which young people are lured by pimps who pretend to care about them.
“Once they are isolated from friends and family,” Powell said. “It is much easier for the trafficker to exploit them and keep them from seeking help.”
The teen prostitute told authorities Wright did just that, according to court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court.
While staying at a Comfort Inn on Old Stage road in Dumfries, the girl — referred to only as Jane Doe #1 in court documents — tried to contact her mother, she reportedly told authorities. When Wright learned of her attempt, “he became irate with Jane Doe and choked her,” an FBI agent wrote in a sworn statement.
Wright then told Jane Doe to “take her clothes off and make his money,” the agent wrote.
By then, Jane Doe had been traveling with Wright for nearly a month, the statement said. The two had met in December 2007 at a mall in Chicago. At the time Jane Doe was living in a group home and attending high school. Wright started picking her up from a 7-Eleven near the home and began giving her marijuana. Eventually, Wright took her to Chicago hotels for trysts.
In early January 2008, he told Jane Doe to pick up her birth certificate and Social Security card from the group home, and the two left for Philadelphia. From there, they went to the District and stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn on Vermont Avenue, then to the Comfort Inn and finally to the Sheraton in Alexandria, where police discovered Jane Doe after responding to a Craigslist posting.
Further investigation revealed that Wright ran his alleged pimping business by posting 635 advertisements in Craigslist’s erotic services section, court documents said.
