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NEW YORK — A 13-year-old runaway returned home with a horrific account of being forced into prostitution by the kind of person who should have instead come to her aid: a city detective.
The teenager thought she was being offered a job dancing at parties, according to prosecutors. She soon found herself a captive of Wayne Taylor 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.
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 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 department said.
The teenager told police she 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, 29, 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. At one point, Brown chastised her for not earning enough money and slammed her head into the floor, they 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.
Prosecutors did not know if the 17-year-old had a lawyer.
