A Texas pimp took two teenage sex trafficking victims to Brooklyn to have them work as prostitutes and made them get tattoos with his nickname, “Blue Cheese,” on their faces, prosecutors say.
Donald Roberson, 29, of Dallas, brought the two victims, ages 17 and 18, to Brooklyn to walk the Penn Track — a desolate stretch of road in East New York that’s known as an open-air prostitution market — in August, prosecutors in Brooklyn allege.
He also brutally assaulted both teens, stabbing one of them with scissors and burning her with a torch lighter, prosecutors say.
Roberson was indicted in Brooklyn Supreme Court on multiple sex trafficking and assault charges Wednesday and ordered held without bail.
Roberson met the 17-year-old, whom he connected with through Instagram, in Dallas on Aug. 10, and she agreed to go with him and the 18-year-old to New York, prosecutors say.
They all drove together, and arrived at the Hotel Sunborn in East New York on Aug. 16, where Roberson rented a room. He then forced them to walk the Penn Track, prosecutors said, and he kept all the money they made.
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
The Penn Track, a stretch of road in East New York that’s known as an open-air prostitution market.
After making both teens get his nickname tattooed on their faces, he argued with the 17-year-old in McCarren Park on Aug. 20, prosecutors said.
He punched and kicked the teen in her face and pulled her hair, causing her to suffer a seizure, prosecutors said. He also stabbed her in the side with a pair of scissors, prosecutors allege.
The teen had to be hospitalized on Aug. 22 for a viral throat infection from being forced to perform sex acts, prosecutors said. Roberson went looking for the older victim in East New York that same day, then choked her and punched her in the face.
The next day, he and the 17-year-old argued again in the hotel and when she locked herself inside his car, he smashed a window, cutting her with the shards, and took a torch lighter to her leg and burned her, prosecutors said.
She managed to text someone in Texas the name of the hotel and the room number. When police arrived, they found her in the parking lot and arrested him, prosecutors said.
“This defendant allegedly subjected two young women to horrific abuse, treating them as his personal property by branding them with his nickname and forcing them into a life of exploitation and violence,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Wednesday. “The brutality these victims endured is appalling, and we will work diligently to ensure that he is held accountable for the inhumanity he inflicted.”
Roberson’s lawyer declined to comment Wednesday.
Several accused pimps who force women to walk the Penn Track have been locked up over the past two years.
In April, three men were hit with a host of federal charges for trafficking women, including two who killed a rival pimp to prevent one of their prostitutes from changing loyalties, prosecutors charge.
The feds busted two alleged pimps working in the area last year. One forced a 14-year-old girl to live naked with him on Staten Island, while the other mulled using antifreeze to poison a woman who went to the police, the feds said.
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