South Ozone Park resident Reginald Cooke, 22, pleaded guilty last week for forcing a 19-year-old girl into prostitution.
Cooke allegedly lived with the girl and threatened to shoot her if she did not make more money. Cooke was further charged with choking his victim with a belt and striking her in the face and body.
When Cooke was arrested on gun charges in September last year, he called the victim from jail and ordered her to prostitute to raise money for bail. Several days later, he told her a family member would bail him out, and he would kill her because she did not make enough money to bail him out.
Cooke faces two to six years in prison and a consecutive term of two years in prison on the weapons charge.
Another man, Dayquan Oliphant, 27, of Jamaica, was sentenced to seven years in prison on prostitution-related charges.
According to trial testiomy, Oliphant beat a 22-year-old female and threw her down a flight of stairs in November 2009. Oliphant allegedly assaulted his victim after unsuccessfully trying to recruit her to work as a prostitute for him.
“These two cases make it clear that prostitution is not a victimless crime but a terrifying and despicable offense against society—and the young women that it enslaves. In each case, the term of imprisonment is more than warranted,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
