Photo Courtesy of Google
During an incident on Oct. 19, 2021, at the LeTap Hotel on Archer Avenue, Sterling struck the second victim about her body and took some cash—proceeds from the prostitution acts, from her.
By Forum Staff
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Cleveland Sterling was arraigned on Wednesday on charges of sex trafficking, robbery and other crimes for allegedly forcing two victims to engage in prostitution and assaulting and robbing them.
Sterling, 34, of Uniondale, was arraigned on a 21-count indictment charging him with sex trafficking, promoting prostitution in the second and third degrees, robbery in the second and third degrees, grand larceny in the fourth degree, assault in the third degree, petit larceny and criminal mischief in the fourth degree. Justice Peter Vallone, Jr. ordered Sterling to return to court March 31. If convicted, he faces up to 50 years in prison.
According to the charges:
- Sterling met the first victim, a 19-year-old woman, in 2016 and on multiple occasions through November 2022 forced her to engage in sex for money at various locations around Queens. Sterling took photographs of the victim and used them to create online ads for sex. He communicated with customers, arranged prostitution dates and collected and required the victim to turn over to him all payments for the sexual encounters. Sterling struck the victim if she withheld cash from him. On an occasion when the victim told Sterling she did not want to have sex with customers for money, he punched her in the face and body—bruising her face and breaking some of her teeth.
- On April 9, 2022, at the Van Wyck Hotel on Liberty Avenue, while defendant was forcing her to engage in acts of prostitution Sterling pushed the victim down the stairs, causing injury to her ankle and breaking her cellphone. During another incident, on November 25, 2022, Sterling entered the victim’s room at the Hotel JFK located at 139-09 Archer Avenue, struck her about her body and pulled a chain from her neck.
Sterling met a second victim, a 19-year-old woman, in August 2021.
According to the charges:
- He compelled her to engage in sexual activities with men at various locations for money. Sterling took photographs of the victim that he used in online ads for sex acts and arranged prostitution dates for which he collected the proceeds. On multiple occasions, when the victim refused to engage in sex acts, Sterling struck and bit her. To intimidate her, he sent her photos and video of him physically abusing the first victim to show what the consequences would be if she did not comply with his demands to engage in prostitution acts.
- On approximately Oct. 15, 2021, at a hotel on Archer Avenue, Sterling punched the second victim in her face causing substantial pain to her jaw. During another incident, on Oct. 19, 2021, at the LeTap Hotel on 139-01 Archer Ave., Sterling struck the second victim about her body and took a sum of united states currency, proceeds from the prostitution acts, from her.
- During the course of the victims being trafficked, they each received tattoos bearing a form of the defendant’s name that was used to threaten them. The first victim was threatened that if she wanted to leave Sterling, she would first have to cut off her own foot because his name was tattooed on it so her foot belonged to him. The second victim who believed she was getting a different tattoo, was tattooed with Sterling’s street name after which he told her that she was now his property.
