6 arrested in human trafficking case involving teen girl in Jacksonville
It is the first case of its kind in the city, Rutherford said.
Posted: August 16, 2010 - 10:55pm
6 arrested in human trafficking case involving teen girl in Jacksonville
It is the first case of its kind in the city, Rutherford said.
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Over the past several weeks, local and federal authorities have arrested six men in what they're calling a rare sex-trafficking operation in Jacksonville.
It started when a 15-year-old runaway wandered into the city's drug-ridden underbelly last spring. She met men who gave her crack cocaine in exchange for sex. Then they held her captive for nearly a month and sold her as a prostitute until she managed to break free and call her mother, who then called police.
Sheriff John Rutherford compared the case to slavery on Monday as he and James Casey, FBI special agent in charge of the Jacksonville office, announced the arrests.
However, the details were kept to a minimum. Both said they wanted to protect the 15-year-old girl, who had been placed in a therapy program.
Police would not specify where in the city the girl was being held or where she was forced to perform sex acts for drugs. The method the men used to strong-arm her into prostitution also was not revealed.
Ian Sean Gordon, 29, and Melvin Eugene Friedman, 45, were identified as principal suspects in the case. Court papers obtained by the Times-Union say the girl met Gordon on the streets smoking crack cocaine.
Gordon's arrest and booking report on file at the Duval County courthouse identified hotels on Philips Highway and Arlington Expressway where investigators say Gordon and the teenager would smoke crack and have sex.
Investigators further say a naked picture of the girl was kept on his cell phone.
State prosecutors stopped pursuing a case against Gordon as federal authorities took over, charging him as part of an investigation they termed "Operation Abandoned Hope."
If he's convicted on the federal sex-trafficking charges, Gordon could face a life sentence.
It was not made clear how Friedman took on a co-pimping role with Gordon, but among the six arrests announced on Monday, his charges are the most serious.
Friedman could face two life sentences if convicted, partially because of his prior record. He'd been released from prison in 2007 after a 1997 manslaughter arrest. Police say he'd bludgeoned a man to death in a Philips Highway hotel room.
Police also rounded up three men accused of purchasing the girl as a prostitute. Phillip Anthony Aiken, 28, Oris Alexander English, 45, and Alfredo Martinez Riquene, 42, each face a mandatory 10-year prison sentence if convicted.
Another man, 28-year-old Antonio D. Ford, was arrested on charges that he knew about what was happening to the girl but did not come forward.
Nearly 300,000 children in the United States, most of them runaways, are considered at risk to be forced into prostitution, according to a November 2009 report compiled by International Crisis Aid, a St. Louis-based human rights organization.
Still, Rutherford said the case announced Monday is a first in Jacksonville. Investigators said there could be more arrests coming.
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