BROOKLYN — An East New York man and his girlfriend charged Monday with selling a pair of 14-year-old girls into prostitution are facing up to 25 years in prison, prosecutors announced.
Anthony “Royalty” Young, 30, pimped out the girls between March and August of 2016, bringing them to meet men in Brownsville, Long Island and New Jersey, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney.
Young’s girlfriend, Shaunda Swanson, 23, of The Bronx, also helped promote one of the girls and gave her a false ID to rent a hotel room for sex, prosecutors said.
“These defendants preyed on vulnerable young girls, selling them to men who had sex with them in exchange for money,” acting DA Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “Prostitution of minors is a dangerous and degrading crime and those who force others to work in the sex trade in Brooklyn will be prosecuted.”
Young and Swanson also rented out several hotel rooms at a Howard Johnson on Rockaway Avenue in Brownsville and threatened one of the girls physically if she did not have sex with the men, prosecutors added.
Young — who has prior arrests in Pennsylvania and Maryland for gun possession, robbery and drugs, according to law enforcement sources — was indicted for sex trafficking and promoting prostitution.
He was arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court Monday and held without bail.
He is due back in court on Sept. 13. His lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.
Swanson was also charged with promoting prostitution and is also facing up to 25 years in prison.
