Craigslist Pimp gets 25 Years

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BRONX, NEW YORK, May 14- District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced that a 34-year-old Bronx man has been sentenced to a maximum term of up to 25 years in prison for forcing a 13-year-old to service ‘Johns’ who had placed ads for sexual favors on Craigslist.

Sahim Lucas, of Prospect Avenue, was convicted by a jury earlier this month on one count of Sex Trafficking, a Class B felony offense, and one count of Promoting Prostitution in the 2^nd degree, a Class C felony offense.

Lucas was sentenced by State Supreme Court Justice Megan Tallmer to concurrent terms of 12 and a half years to 25 years on the sex trafficking charge and 7 and a half to 15 years imprisonment on the promoting prostitution charge.

The crimes of which Lucas was found guilty occurred between November 21, 2008 and December 10, 2008.

Witnesses testified that Lucas met the 13-year-old runaway from Delaware in Atlantic City, New Jersey where she told him that she was interested in becoming a model. The jury was told that Lucas convinced the victim that he was a legitimate modeling agent and persuaded her to accompany him to New York City. After arriving at Lucas’ Prospect Avenue apartment, the young girl was told that she would not be modeling but working as a prostitute instead. The victim testified that was she coerced into prostitution through physical intimidation as well as the deprivation of food and sleep. She finally managed to escape after a violent episode during which Lucas choked her.

The girl’s testimony was corroborated by another young woman who told the jury that she also had been deceived by Lucas and later manipulated into engaging in prostitution. This witness told the jury that she and the girl would sometimes be sold together as a “2 Girl Special” with the pet names of ‘buttercup’ and ‘bubbles.’

The State Division of Criminal Justice Services believes this case to be only the third trial conviction statewide since the Sex Trafficking statute became law in November 2007. One of the other two convictions was also successfully prosecuted in the Bronx.

District Attorney Johnson thanked the following for the hard work and dedication that led to today’s sentencing: the Major Case Team of NYPD’s Vice Enforcement, Detective Rose Muckenthaler, and Assistant District Attorneys Thomas Leahy, Chief of the Investigations Division, Stuart Levy, Chief of the Rackets Bureau, Robert Caliendo and Vanessa McEvoy ADAs of the Rackets Bureau. Assistant District Attorneys Caliendo and McEvoy prosecuted the case.

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Espada Found Guilty

Pol Faces 44 years in Jail for Health-Center Embezzlement

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, May 14- Former State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., faces up to 44 years in jail following his conviction, Monday, on four counts of embezzling $210,000 from the Soundview Health Centers to support a lavish lifestyle that has included private-school education, lavish dinners, and extravagant vacations for his family.

The federal jury in the Espada case, sitting in Brooklyn's Federal Court, deadlocked on charges that the former State Senator's son, former City Councilman Pedro G. Espada, conspired with his father to siphon away funds from the Soundview Health Network.

The jury in the Espada case, which had, at one time, been ready to give up on reaching a verdict, deliberated for 11 days before reaching a verdict in the former State Senator's case.

Following the older Espada's conviction on embezzlement charges on Monday, The former State Senator's two remaining health centers, at White Plains Road and Westchester Avenue, were open, but patients were not being seen at either center.

Espada, who once served as majority leader of the State Senator, wielded power in the State Legislature as both a Democrat and a Republican, switching sides at various times to increase state funding for his health centers.

In recent years, state and federal funding for Espada's health centers had been cut off or limited, especially after the election of Andrew Cuomo as the state's governor.

In its heyday, the Soundview Health Network ran five centers in the southeast, southwest, and northeast Bronx, serving some of the poorest New Yorkers with free medical and dental care that was available in few other places.

The seeming collapse of the Soundview Health Network, which Espada founded in 1978, raises serious questions about how the void in medical and dental care for the poorest Bronxites will be filled.

Another health network for poor Bronxites, the Hunts Point Multi-Service Center, has fallen on hard times in recent years, following the death of Ramon Velez, the founder of that network of centers.

In the wake of the illness and death of Velez, one of the borough's most successful organizers of programs and services fopr4 the poor, members of Velez's organization have been fighting over the spoils of the Hunts Point Multi-Service.

Espada, a power in the Bronx who frequently crossed swords with regular Democrats in the borough, ran unsuccessfully for Bronx borough president in 2001, a year after he was acquitted on charges of siphoning away money from the Soundview Health Network for a political campaign in 1996.

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