She was lured to New York with promises of cash and gifts, but a naive Florida model ended up a sex slave and pimped out to johns by a Brooklyn man who wooed her on Instagram.
The 23-year-old woman’s pleasure trip to New York turned into a 12-day tour of hell, in which she was forced to turn tricks in hotel rooms under constant threats of death, police sources told the Daily News Monday.
Suspect Kevon Attz, 28, came off as an angel in his Instagram messages to the victim, but he turned out to be a devil when she accepted his invitation and $150 in travel expenses to come north, sources said.
“She said (Attz) told her that he would beat her, kill her or throw her in the river if she does not engage in prostitution,” according to a criminal complaint.
Cops say Kevon Attz, 28, used Instagram to lure the model to New York City and forced her into prostitution.
Attz, of East Flatbush, was being held on $450,000 bail at Rikers Island, charged with sex trafficking, promoting prostitution and unlawful imprisonment.
The accuser is a Clearwater, Fla., mother of two, who began working in June as a model for the Florida Modeling Network. “I have photographed her a few times,” said the modeling agency’s owner, who goes by the name XZanthia. “However, I know nothing about her.”
The News is withholding the woman’s name because she is the alleged victim of a sex crime. She couldn’t be reached.
Cops said the Instagram picture she posted caught Attz’s eye, and he began messaging her false promises that he would financially take care of her and her children if she came to New York.
JEFF BACHNER/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Neighbors say that Attz lives in this Foster Ave house with his mother.
When Attz, who lives with his mother and has prior arrests for marijuana possession and unauthorized use of a vehicle, picked her up in New Jersey on June 25 and took her to a hotel, she realized she had made a huge mistake. He began demanding she reimburse him for travel expenses, gifts he gave her and for her hotel room — which became her prison, sources said.
She told cops Attz locked her in the room with no food, deprived her of sleep and warned her that the only way she’d stay alive was to become his hooker, sources said.
The young woman said Attz and a female associate she knew as Melissa would drive her to hotels in Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey to perform sex acts on johns. While holding her captive, Attz even placed Internet ads offering her for sex, sources said.
On July 6, the victim managed to phone her mother in Florida, who agreed to send her money. But when Attz found out, he and Melissa drove her to an East Flatbush check-cashing store to pick up the money the victim’s mom wired, sources said.
JEFF BACHNER/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Attz was arrested outside this check cashing store in Brooklyn.
When Melissa briefly left her in the Utica Ave. store alone, the alleged victim told the manager she was kidnapped and asked for help.
“ ‘Kidnapped?’ I asked,” she recalled to The News. “I called the police.”
Cops went to the store and arrested Attz after a short chase. Melissa, whose full name was not released by police, has not been charged.
A man who identified himself as Attz’s brother scoffed at the accuser’s story.
“You don’t make anyone do what they don’t want to do,” the brother said.
[NYDailyNews]