Florida

Brothers Drugged Teen, Forced her to Have Sex for Money: Miami-Dade State Attorney

Two South Florida brothers were behind bars Tuesday accused of forcing a 16-year-old girl to have sex with nearly two dozen men a night, authorities said.

Bogacski Thomas and Tavarus Ballard, both 24, are facing charges including human trafficking, lewd or lascivious battery on a child between 12 and 16 and deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution.

Both were being held without bond Tuesday and it was unknown if they have attorneys.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle held a news conference to announce the arrests and said it's one of the worst cases she's seen.

"It's unspeakable. It's inexplicable, and it's horrifying," Fernandez Rundle said.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by NBC 6, Thomas and Ballard met their victim on January 9th. She ran away from her home after a fight with her mom. The State Attorney says the brothers preyed on her vulnerability and used her to make money. The money collected would pay for their hotel, food and drugs — drugs that they forced the teen to take.

"She, to them, was nothing more than a walking machine," Fernandez Rundle said. "No dignity, not a human being, not a young girl, a cash machine. That's how these predators look at them."

According to investigators, Thomas and Ballard told the 16-year-old she had to have sex with men in order to pay for hotels and for them to eat. They would force the girl to work the areas of Campbell Drive and Krome Avenue, and 64th Street and South Dixie Highway

"That is a man every 30 minutes from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at night. Only to repeat itself the next day and the next day," Fernandez Rundle said.

To keep the teen in check and under control, the suspects provided her with ecstacy, cocaine and marijuana. They would also put drugs in her food and lace her cigarettes, authorities said.

"Every time she tried to escape they would beat her up, grab her back," Fernandez Rundle said. "In one case they picked her broken body up and took her back up into the motel."

The details on how the case broke are still being put together. But the suspects are looking at life felonies under the Florida's new human trafficking laws. That also means they cannot bond out of jail.

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