MIAMI – A convicted felon who owns Rich Dolla Management and Promotions appeared in Miami-Dade County court on Thursday afternoon accused of human trafficking.
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Philbrine “Dolla” Bell stood before County Circuit Judge Ariel Rodriguez who granted prosecutors' request for his pre-trial detention.
Rodriguez ordered Bell, 36, to stay at least 500 feet away from the victims identified by their initials, and have “no direct or indirect contact” with them.
“I don’t know who that is,” Bell told Rodriguez in court.
According to an arrest report, deputies described Bell’s occupation as a “pimp” and arrested him at about 2 p.m., on Wednesday at Southwest 117 Avenue and 162 Street in Miami-Dade.
The intersection deputies reported is steps away from The WoodSpring Suites Miami Southwest, a 3-star long-stay hotel where victims told detectives Bell, 36, sexually exploited them, records show.
County Circuit Judge Lody Jean issued two arrest warrants on March 4 for Bell and his co-conspirator, Liliannet “Lili″ Betancourt, after detectives’ cited an investigation from April 2023 to Feb. 10 that included descriptions of Bell’s alleged cruelty on a migrant mother of 5 and a teen who ended up pregnant.
Records show Miami-Dade correctional deputies booked Bell at 7:40 p.m., at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Betancourt, 32, of Hialeah, was already there behind bars. Deputies arrested her on Tuesday at the Broward County main jail in Fort Lauderdale and she appeared in court on Wednesday, records show.
Deputies' report on Bell’s arrest lists his phone number with a Broward area code and his primary residence as a four-bedroom house in South Miami Heights owned by a man and a woman who don’t share his last name.
Miami-Dade deputies were familiar with Bell. When he was 24 years old, he was armed with a revolver when they arrested him for the attempted murder of a police officer after an armed robbery at a Quality Inn on U.S.-1, near Southwest 144 Street. His 22-year-old co-conspirator used a child to shield himself during a standoff, police said.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, a few weeks after his 26th birthday, a Miami-Dade judge sentenced Bell to 12 years in prison for armed robbery and false imprisonment in a case that had started when he was 20 years old. He left prison when he was 32.
Court records show prosecutors filed a case against Bell for human trafficking, commercial sexual human trafficking of a minor, and two counts of deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution. Rodriguez denied bond for the human trafficking charge and set a $30,000 for the other three charges.
Meanwhile, Betancourt was facing charges of human trafficking and deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution. Her bond is $22,500.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Jason Bloch is set to preside over Betancourt’s case and Circuit Judge Zachary N. James is set to preside over Bell’s case.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.