Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston
today sentenced Ryan Russell Parks, a/k/a Dinero, age 26, of Baltimore,
Maryland, to 240 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised
release, for two counts of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of using
the Internet to promote a business enterprise involving prostitution. A federal jury convicted Parks late on July
18, 2019, after a four-day trial. As a
result of his conviction, upon his release from prison, Parks will be required
to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an
employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification
Act (SORNA).
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the
District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Colonel
William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
“Ryan Parks cruelly preyed on vulnerable girls in order to
sell them for sex. Children cannot
consent to have sex for money and the sex trafficking of children will not be
tolerated in Maryland. Through the
Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, law enforcement is working with victim
services providers and victim advocates to rescue human trafficking victims and
prosecute traffickers,” said Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur.
According to the evidence presented at his trial, Parks
trafficked two vulnerable minor victims—a 16-year-old girl (Girl 1) and a
15-year-old girl (Girl 2)—for commercial sex.
According to trial testimony, Parks met Girl 1 online. During their communications Parks learned
that she was hungry and had no real place to live, and he offered Girl 1 a
place to stay. Parks sent a car to pick
up Girl 1 and to bring her to a motel in Woodlawn, Maryland, and within a day,
he caused advertisements to be posted on a website that marketed commercial sex
workers. These advertisements contained
photographs and descriptions of Girl 1 and offered Girl 1 for commercial sex
acts. Parks stayed with Girl 1 at a
motel in Baltimore, along with another woman he was advertising on the Internet
for commercial sex. He also had sex with
Girl 1 in the motel room. Parks would
leave the room for short periods of time, when men would come to the room to
have sex with Girl 1, and he would return to the room shortly after the men
left the room. Parks paid for additional
advertisements on the website offering Girl 1 for commercial sex on August 1
and August 2, 2017. One of Girl 1’s
customers returned to the room the next day to rescue her, and he took her to
live in a different city with his sister.
The evidence also proved that in November 2017, Parks met
Girl 2 online, and he learned that she had run away from her foster home. On November 16, 2017, Parks paid a driver
through an application on his cell phone to pick up Girl 2 and bring her to his
home. Girl 2, who was 15 years old, told
Parks that she was 17 years old, in foster care, and in an unhappy
situation. Parks provided Girl 2 with
marijuana and had sex with her. He
talked to her about making money through prostitution, and he took her to the
same motel in Baltimore where Parks had harbored Girl 1. Girl 2 had run away from her foster home
without a coat, a purse, or change of clothing. Parks purchased a bra, panties,
and condoms for Girl 2. Parks took
photographs of Girl 2 and paid for an online advertisement offering Girl 2 for
commercial sex using his cell phone.
Several of the photos that Parks uploaded to the website were rejected,
because they contained nudity and were too explicit. Less revealing photos of Girl 2, wearing the
bra and panties purchased by Parks, were accepted and uploaded to the online
advertisement.
As he had with Girl 1, Parks then set the prices and time
limits for the sex acts to be performed on Girl 2, and he instructed her on the
process of checking a man for a wire when he came into the motel room. Parks stayed in the motel room with Girl 2
when other men were not present, but he left the room and stood outside in a
stairwell when men arrived to have sex with Girl 2. Parks offered Girl 2 for commercial sex from
November 16 through November 20, 2017.
During this time, over 300 individuals contacted the phone number placed
by Parks on the advertisement, to inquire about commercial sex with Girl
2. On November 21, 2017, Girl 2
contacted her foster care social worker, who dispatched police to the
motel. According to trial testimony,
Parks reviewed Girl 2’s phone while she was in the shower and saw that she had
contacted her social worker. Parks
became angry, told her to delete information from her phone and to remove the
chip from her phone, and then he left the motel. Girl 2 went to the lobby and turned herself
in to police.
While law enforcement was investigating the trafficking of
the two minor victims, they discovered evidence regarding the extent of Parks’
prostitution business. Evidence at trial
proved that from February 25, 2017, through the date that he was arrested on
January 10, 2018, Parks paid over $1,000 for approximately 295 commercial sex
advertisements placed on the Internet.
Parks advertised approximately 27 different women and girls for
commercial sex. Parks also paid over
$6,000 for hotel rooms in Baltimore County and Baltimore City during the course
of his prostitution enterprise.
Parks remains detained.
The case was investigated by the FBI-led Maryland Child
Exploitation Task Force (MCETF), created in 2010 to combat child prostitution,
with members from 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies. The Task Force coordinates with the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Maryland State Police Child
Recovery Unit to identify missing children being advertised online for
prostitution.
MCETF partners with the Maryland Human Trafficking Task
Force, formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking while
identifying and prosecuting offenders.
Members include federal, state and local law enforcement, as well as
victim service providers and local community members. For more information about the Maryland Human
Trafficking Task Force, please visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/md/priorities_human.html.
United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended the FBI and
Maryland State Police for their work in the investigation. Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Christine Duey and Matthew Maddox, who prosecuted the case.
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