NYPD detective arrested for pimping 13-year-old

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NYPD detective arrested on teen prostitution charge

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NEW YORK — The 13-year-old runaway thought she was being offered a job dancing at parties, according to prosecutors.

She soon found herself a captive of a police detective and a woman who forced the teen to prostitute herself at parties, with the detective threatening to make her sell herself on the streets if she tried to escape, prosecutors said.

"This case is every parent and every child's worst nightmare,'' Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement.

Detective Wayne Taylor, and Zelika Brown, the woman accused of working as his partner, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to kidnapping, promoting prostitution, assault and endangering the welfare of a child, the district attorney's office said.

Taylor's lawyer, Peter Brill, told reporters his 35-year-old client "has a right to have the case proven against him beyond a reasonable doubt.'' Randall Unger, an attorney for the 29-year-old Zelika Brown, told Newsday, "It may turn out that there is a great deal of exaggeration in this case.''

Taylor, a 14-year veteran assigned to the New York Police Department's housing bureau, was suspended without pay, the NYPD said.

According to prosecutors, the teenager ran away from her Brooklyn home on Jan. 10 and met someone who offered to get her work dancing for money at parties. That person then introduced her to Brown, who told the girl she had "purchased'' her for $500 and she had to work off the debt, prosecutors said.

Taylor instructed the girl to tell people she was 19 years old and that she charged between $40 and $80 for sexual acts, prosecutors said.

Taylor and Brown took the girl to parties throughout the city, where she was told to have sex with about 20 men in exchange for money given to the pair, prosecutors said.

While holding the girl against her will, Brown chastised her for not earning enough money and slammed her head into the floor, prosecutors said.

Taylor told the victim that if she failed to earn more money or tried to leave the home, he would force her to work as a prostitute on the streets, prosecutors said. He told the girl an alarm on the house would alert him if she tried to leave, they said. The girl escaped to her family, who took her to a police precinct, police said.

Taylor and Brown each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

A third person, a 17-year-old, also was arrested on charges of promoting prostitution, assault and endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said. The teen is accused of slapping the 13-year-old, at Brown's direction, for talking too much to customers and punching her, giving the girl a black eye, prosecutors said.

The 17-year-old was told to oversee the victim at parties, prosecutors said. They did not immediately have information on whether the older teen had a lawyer.