Two sentenced for sex trafficking of 14-year-old

Palm Beach Post - 9/21/2018

Sept. 21--WEST PALM BEACH

For plying a 14-year-old runaway with crack cocaine, having sex with her and turning her into a prostitute, two West Palm Beach men will spend roughly two decades in prison, a federal judge ordered on Thursday.

Calling his conduct "reprehensible," U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks sentenced 63-year-old Charles Edward Smith to 19 1/2 years in prison -- a punishment his attorney called a life sentence.

While prepared to hand the same sentence to 44-year-old Michael Clark, Middlebrooks said he decided to give the longtime drug dealer a break after being told that Clark had given prosecutors the name of a violent pimp who had preyed on the same runaway along with other teens.

While it doesn't appear that man has been arrested, as a reward for his cooperation, Clark will spend roughly 18 years in prison, Middlebrooks decided.

Even Clark's attorney couldn't defend his client's actions. "The facts in this case are terrible," said defense attorney Deric Zacca.

Both men befriended the girl after she ran away from a group home operated by the Florida Department of Children and Families. The girl, identified in court papers only as AA or Minor A, ended up in state custody after her mother was stripped of her parental rights and her grandmother abandoned her.

During an emotional trial in June, the now 15-year-old girl testified that Smith allowed her to live in a small house on Pine Street near Currie Park in exchange for money, sex and crack. But, when Smith's defense attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Caroline McCrae, suggested Clark was her pimp, she balked.

She first refused to answer McCrae's questions. Then she bolted from the courtroom. While she returned the next day, her answers were perfunctory.

In closing arguments, McCrae told the jury that in a recorded phone conversation, the girl told Clark she loved him even as he talked to her about setting up another "date."

Ultimately, the jury convicted Smith of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor. Hoping to win a lenient sentence, Clark pleaded guilty to the same charge plus a more serious charge of sex trafficking of a minor.

Although the men were convicted of different charges, Middlebrooks said he considered both equally culpable. "I don't see a big difference in how they treated the victim," he said. "They both really abused her. I don't see a difference in how both of these individuals really preyed on the victim."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lothrop Morris put it more succinctly: "They ruined her life."

Mentioned only briefly was the damage that was done to her by her mother. A prostitute testified during Smith's trial that the mother encouraged the girl to work as a prostitute and, on one occasion, became angry when a customer chose the girl over her.

Clark also told prosecutors that the mother worked as her daughter's pimp and was willing to testify about it, Zacca said. But to get a conviction, it is likely the girl would have to testify against her mother. That, Zacca said, was unlikely to happen.

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