MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Three people were arrested Thursday for trying to pimp out a 16-year-old foster child in southwest Miami-Dade, authorities said.
According to an arrest report, the victim notified employees at the Family Resource Center that she had been physically abused.
Employees took the girl to the office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle because they believed that she might have been commercially sexually exploited.
"She's a runaway," Fernandez Rundle said. "She was in the foster care system. She ran away multiple times, and that's what they wait for. These bad guys, these predators, wait for girls and boys who are lost, that are alone, that are runaways, that are throwaways, that are forgotten, that are vulnerable."
The girl's case manager told a human trafficking assistant state attorney that the girl had run away five times between June 13 and Wednesday.
The victim was interviewed by authorities and said that she had been staying on and off at the home of Michael Coney Jr., 18, on Southwest 225th Street and 118th Avenue.
Authorities said Coney repeatedly tried to get the teen to agree to prostitute herself and when she refused he got aggressive, kicked her out of his house and told her, "You look like a h**, so go make me some money. You're not going to use my water for free."
The teen told Coney's mother, but the woman told her that it's not her business and to get out of the house, the arrest report said.
The victim told authorities that she went across the street to Coney's relatives's home, but the man, identified as Landis Wordly, 39, told her that she also had to "f*** for money and bring him back the money."
The girl said Worldly told her this while they were alone and in front of a woman, identified as Jerrini Virgin, 24, who worked as a prostitute.
The victim said Virgin beat her a week ago for refusing to prostitute herself.
Authorities said the teen said that she had sex with Wordly six to seven times and said that he had recorded some of the incidents.
She said she also had sex with Coney and both men gave her marijuana on multiple occasions and Ecstasy once.
Coney, Wordly and Virgin were arrested on various charges, including human trafficking, battery, creating child pornography, unlawful sexual activity with a minor and giving a minor drugs.