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Keyan Price, 36, of 94 Orchard St., appeared in front of Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron Wednesday when he was arraigned on the eight-count indictment.
Included in the charges were two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of second-degree promoting prostitution, three counts of third-degree promoting prostitution, all felonies, and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
Prosecutors say Price prostituted the teens, ages 15, 16 and 18, throughout New York City between March and November 2012.
According to authorities, an undercover police officer went to a Jackson Heights address in Queens early on Nov. 30, 2012, in response to a prostitution advertisement posted online. There, two girls, ages 15 and 18, each offered to have sex with the officer in exchange for $150 in cash, according to the criminal complaint.
The girls were taken to the location by Price, prosecutors said.
Then, earlier this month, the 16-year-old agreed to meet an undercover officer at a midtown Manhattan hotel and offered to have sex with the officer for $240.
Prosecutors say over the course of eight months, the 18-year-old girl was taken to various locations and hotels throughout Queens and New York City where she would have sex with numerous men in exchange for money. She would then turn that money over to Price, prosecutors said.
Price, who was arrested on Feb. 8, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
“While technology has moved prostitution from the city sidewalks to the back alleys of online classified services, the sexual predators who force young women to participate in a modern-day version of slavery by coercing them through threats of physical harm still remains,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Price was ordered to be held on $750,000 bail. He is scheduled to return to court on May 15.
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