A South Ozone Park man pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a teenage runaway, whom he forced to perform sexual acts for pay at various locations throughout Queens, District Attorney Richard Brown said last week.
Michael Summerville, 33, admitted that he befriended the then 14-year-old victim in January 2010 after she ran away from home, the DA said. He engaged in sexual activity withe her and eventually pimped her out until she managed to escape and return home, according to Brown.
However, in October 2010, the victim, then 15, ran away again and returned to Summerville’s home in South Ozone Park, where she stayed with him until the end of that month, the DA said. During that time, she was made to prostitute herself on a daily basis and forced to give all of her earnings to him, Brown said.
“This defendant preyed on a vulnerable and troubled teenage girl, using her first for his own sexual gratification and then as a commodity to be sold to others for cash, which he then pocketed for himself,” Brown said in a prepared statement last Friday. “Today’s guilty plea, and the promised sentence of incarceration, will help to deter others who traffic in vulnerable girls by first gaining their trust and then betraying that trust.”
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