PHOTO: A victim was allegedly forced into prostitution last year at this Woodside motel by two brothers. Photo Courtesy of Google
A Forest Hills man last Friday was found guilty of 40 felony charges relating to the recruiting, prostituting, and statutory rape of two teenage girls – ages 13 and 16 – between March and September 2011.
And in a separate, unrelated case, two brothers pleaded guilty to felony charges in a gunpoint sex trafficking case just as their trial was about to begin this week in Queens Supreme Court, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Peter Gerardi, 30, was convicted last Friday of one count of compelling prostitution, three counts of second-degree promoting prostitution, two counts of third-degree promoting prostitution, twenty-one counts of statutory rape, eleven counts of statutory criminal sex act and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Sentencing for Gerardi, who has been held without bail since his arrest in December 2013, is set for Dec. 8, at which time he faces up to 25 years in prison.
According to court documents, between March 2011 and September 2011, Gerardi made a 13-year-old girl have sex with numerous men in exchange for money, which she was required to turn over to him. During this time period, Gerardi also forced a 16-year-old girl – whom he also met on the street – to work as a prostitute for him through threats of physical violence.
In the second case, Evan and Richard Hernandez pleaded guilty early last week. Evan Hernandez, 25, of Corona, copped to sex trafficking and Richard Hernandez, 27, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to second-degree promoting prostitution. Justice Greg Lasak set sentencing for Jan. 27, at which time he indicated that he would sentence Evan Hernandez to an indeterminate term of four and one-half years to nine years in prison; and Richard Hernandez to an indeterminate term of three years to six years in prison.
According to the charges, Brown said, Evan Hernandez was introduced to the 25-year-old female victim by another woman at the Queens Motor Inn on Queens Boulevard in Woodside on April 15, 2014. The following morning, the other woman disappeared with most of the victim’s belongings. Evan Hernandez returned to the motor inn and, while holding a gun to her head, told the victim that the other woman had sold her to him for $200 and that she now needed to work for him as a prostitute to repay the debt.
Evan Hernandez then brought his brother to the motor inn to watch the victim and not let her leave. That same day, both brothers forced the victim to have sex with them while Evan Hernandez held a gun to her head and also forced her to perform oral sex on him. On two other occasions that month, the victim was forced to have sexual intercourse with Richard Hernandez at the Queens Motor Inn.
It was additionally charged that the two brothers kept the victim inside the motel between April 16-21, 2014, and forced her to have sex with numerous men in exchange for cash, all of which she was required to turn over to the Hernandez brothers.
During this time, Evan Hernandez threatened the victim, stating that he was her pimp and that he would kill her at any time if she did not obey him. He also slapped and punched the victim and put his gun against her numerous times, saying that she was not free to leave and that she had to make more money by prostituting. At one point, Evan Hernandez took the victim’s phone and posted pictures of her on backpage.com and arranged prostitution dates for her at the motel.
On April 21, the victim called her mother from a client’s phone, and her mother called 911 and alerted the police to the victim’s location.
