A third person has been charged in a Maryland sex-trafficking ring that was discovered when police spotted in an online classified ad and saw a sexually explicit photograph of a missing 15-year-old girl.
A federal grand jury in Greenbelt indicted James M. Davis in late February, making him the third person charged in the case. Prosecutors say in court documents that he and two others pimped the 15-year-old girl for sex and provided drugs to prostitutes. Another man pleaded guilty earlier this year, and charges are still pending against a woman.
According to the indictment, Davis, who lived in D.C. and Maryland, conspired with Duane Mason and Mera Fraley to target vulnerable women and girls to engage in prostitution.
Court documents in the case say Davis recruited the 15-year-old girl to work for him as a prostitute. The trio took photographs of the girl in sexually suggestive poses, posted them in the escort services section of the online-classified site backpage.com and rented a room in a Gaithersburg motel for her to use during “dates,” the documents say.
They were apprehended last April in the Motel 6 parking lot after an undercover police officer responded to the ad. The girl had been reported missing by her family, and someone saw a photograph of her in the backpage.com ad, according to court records.
The indictment against Davis also says that Davis and Mason gave marijuana to the girl and crack cocaine, alcohol and other substances to adult female prostitutes. Documents also say they gave the girl and other prostitutes food and clothing in exchange for performing sex acts.
Davis is charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, sex trafficking, use of interstate facilities to transmit information about a minor and transporting a minor to engage in prostitution.
No lawyer was listed for Davis in court records on Wednesday.
Mason was indicted in October and pleaded guilty in January to sex trafficking of a minor. He will face 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, according to the plea agreement.
Fraley was charged in September and the case against her is still pending.
