Singer Facing Human Trafficking Charges
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A popular guest on a Miami Spanish-language variety shows, singer Yamir Gorritz is now facing human trafficking charges.
Gorritz, who is from Puerto Rico, is known for his Spanish music videos on YouTube.
Gorritz, Gorritz's cousin Kristian Joseph and Mariela Perez, a publicist in the Latin entertainment industry are facing charges of human trafficking and deriving proceeds from prostitution.
The are accused of pimping a Miami woman on the website BackPage.com.
Click here to watch Oralia Ortega's report
"They used every manner possible to force her into prostitution. They would make her earn somewhere around $300 a day," said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
An undercover officer came in contact with the alleged victim earlier this month after finding her on the site.
The woman who's in her early 20's told police Gorritz, Joseph and Perez forced her to prostitute herself for the past two years, charges the defendants deny, according to their attorneys.
"My client is an upstanding businessman, pop star, his career is doing very well about to have his big break and looking forward to getting out there for his fans and there's no reason my client needs to make $300 a day for this woman," said Gorritz's lawyer David Seltzer. "She's trying to get her 15 minutes of fame here and in the process, she's trying to ruin his career."
Perez's lawyer, Menachem Mayberg, calls the human trafficking charge absurd.
"What happened was, she got busted for prostitution and rather than deal with the charge, she worked out a deal with the detectives that all she had to do was blame our clients and she'd be able to walk free and that made the detectives happy because now they can wave around this human trafficking charge and now my client is being trumpeted up all over the news," said Mayberg.
But the state attorney not only believes the trio is guilty but that there may be more victims out there.
"We're urging anyone that has any information or knows of someone that may have been involved to contact us," said Rundle.
