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By Forum Staff
A Queens Village man has been sentenced to up to 50 years in prison for sex trafficking and promoting prostitution of two teenage girls – ages 18 and 19.
The defendant was identified as Ricardi Dumervil (a/k/a “Dirty”), 29, of Queens Village.
Dumervil was convicted of two counts of sex trafficking, one count of second-degree promoting prostitution and two counts of third-degree promoting prostitution following a jury trial last month. Dumervil received consecutive terms of 12 ½ to 25 years in prison on each of his sex trafficking convictions, for a total of 25 to 50 years in prison. “The defendant has now been held accountable for his despicable acts of inducing fear of physical harm into two young women so that he could treat them as chattel, commodities to be sold to others for cash, which he then pocketed for himself.”
Trial testimony showed Dumervil forced a 18-year-old and 19-year-old girl into prostitution between April 1, 2014, and March 7, 2015, by instilling a fear in them that he would physically injury them if they did not comply with his demand to engage in sexual activity with various individuals in exchange for money, which they were required to turn over to him.
DA Brown noted that Dumervil’s conviction is the latest in a long string of sex trafficking convictions – 35 – obtained by his office since State legislation strengthening penalties against human trafficking took effect on November 1, 2007. As of December 31, 2016, the last available year for statistics, the office’s sex trafficking convictions totaled nearly one-third of the statewide total. Significantly, all of the defendants have been, or in Dumervil’s case will be, sentenced to serve state prison time.
