Baltimore Man Sentenced to Eleven Years in Prison for Child Sex Trafficking

BOSTON – A Baltimore man was sentenced today to 138 months in prison in connection with the sex trafficking of a 15-year-old girl.

Justin Richardson, 22, of Baltimore, Maryland was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 138 months in prison and five years of supervised release.  In August 2014, Richardson pleaded guilty to recruiting and transporting a minor to engage in prostitution.  On Dec. 15, 2014, codefendant, Mark Pinnock, of Boston, was sentenced to eight years in prison, and a second codefendant, Martin Pinkney, also of Baltimore, will be sentenced on Dec. 22, 2014.  
 
In late December 2013, officers responded to an emergency call from a Cambridge hotel, where they found the 15-year old victim and Pinnock.  The minor stated that Richardson and Pinkney had arranged for her to travel by bus from Baltimore to Boston.  Pictures were taken of her in both Baltimore and Boston and used to post ads soliciting prostitution on the websites backpage.com and Craigslist.  While in Boston, the minor victim engaged in sex for a fee at the direction of Pinnock at two local hotels.  

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Bruce M. Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; and Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert C. Haas, made the announcement today.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth Kosto and Carlos López, both members of Ortiz’s Civil Rights Enforcement Team.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office also wishes to thank the Middlesex County District Attorney Marian C. Ryan’s Office for its participation in the investigation.

The enforcement of federal civil rights laws is a high priority of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.  Since U.S. Attorney Ortiz created the Civil Rights Enforcement Team in 2010, the Office has substantially increased its efforts in civil and criminal civil rights enforcement actions. In the last four years, the Office has charged an increasing number of defendants with sex trafficking and other criminal civil rights violations.