Brothers Charged With Trafficking Underage Girl
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- An underage girl, forced into prostitution is now safe, and two brothers accused of kidnapping her and forcing her into prostitution are locked up.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle held a news conference Tuesday trumpeting the arrest of the brothers who are now charged with human trafficking, among other felonies.
Bogacski Thomas is facing so many charges it appeared he couldn't keep up in bond court as the judge read them aloud.
Thomas and his brother Tavarus Ballard are accused of kidnapping and drugging a 16-year old runaway and forcing her into prostitution in Southwest Miami-Dade for two weeks in January until she escaped.
"She to them was nothing more than a walking machine, no dignity, not a young girl. A cash machine," said Fernandez Rundle flanked by members of Miami-Dade's Human Trafficking Squad.
According the the warrant affidavit, "Thomas told the victim that if she tried to leave they knew where her family lived and they would shoot up her house and hurt or kill her family."
The brothers are accused of forcing the girl to walk the streets picking up johns and the men allegedly went looking for customers for her too, including in gas station bathrooms.
"She was forced to engage in sex, up to 24 men, up to 24 men per night," said Fernandez Rundle with disgust.
Investigators said before the girl finally escaped, she made numerous attempts and was caught and punished for it.
"They would beat her up, they would grab her back. In one case they actually picked her broken body up and took her back up into the motel."
Both men are locked up without bond, accused of committing this horrific act together.
The victim in this case ran away with another underage girl who investigators said is Thomas' girlfriend.Detectives are still questioning her to see if she was also a victim of human trafficking, or if she perhaps should face charges in this sex slavery situation as well.