A wheelchair-bound pimp sold off underage girls for sex from his Bronx apartment, luring johns to his makeshift brothel using online classified ads, federal investigators charged Thursday.
David Hope, known to his victims as “Capo,” and his associate Kemar Williams, 29, who remains at large, were charged in Manhattan federal court with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, among other crimes.
Since at least 2013, Hope, a 28-year-old paraplegic, had recruited vulnerable minors, “who looked up to him,” for his prostitution ring, then posted provocative photos of the girls on websites like Backpage.com, according to a criminal complaint.
At least three minors, including two high school students, and three adults were allegedly part of Hope’s enterprise.
In October 2015, an undercover officer spotted a Backpage ad that appeared to offer “minor females for commercial sex as part of a ‘two girl special,’” the complaint said. Hope’s victims made thousands for him by sleeping with clients at his Bronx apartment, prosecutors charge.