FORMER COUNSELOR WITH CITY DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE SENTENCED TO CONCURRENT JAIL TERMS FOR RUNNING A PROSTITUTION RING USING TEENAGE GIRLS

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a former counselor with the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice has been sentenced to concurrent terms of one year in jail for running a prostitution ring in which teenage girls were used.

35 year old Everton Duncan, of 3690 Harper Avenue, the Bronx, pled guilty last month to four counts of Promoting Prostitution in the 3rd degree and one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. State Supreme Court Justice Robert Seewald sentenced Duncan to concurrent one year jail terms covering all five counts in the indictment although the People had recommended a sentence of one to three years imprisonment.

Duncan pled guilty to all counts following the testimony of the People’s first witness, Detective Levi Taylor of the Department of Investigation. Taylor, acting undercover, negotiated a deal in which the defendant, in exchange for a $700 payment, agreed to provide six women to engage in sexual conduct at a bachelor party on March 9, 2001 in an apartment at 2245 Randall Avenue. Two of the women were actually 16 and 17 year old girls. The bachelor party was actually an undercover sting operation that was videotaped by investigators.

Duncan also pled guilty to promoting prostitution in connection with an incident on February 9, 2001 at AJ’s Bar at 3848 White Plains Road in which women engaged in oral sex with a client for money during a performance on stage at the bar. Undercover DOI investigators who had already started a probe of Duncan’s activities were in the bar that night and used the occasion to open negotiations with the defendant regarding the March 9th bachelor party.

The City’s Department of Investigation and the Inspector General for the Department of Juvenile Justice initiated the investigation after someone came forward with allegations that Duncan was involved in promoting prostitution.

Assistant District Attorney Stuart Levy of the Investigations Division’s Rackets Bureau is prosecuting the case.