Man in prostitution case pleads not guilty

Thursday, January 16, 2003

DETROIT, Michigan – A 32-year-old man pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he operated a cult-like kidnapping and prostitution ring discovered earlier this week.

Michigan prosecutors said others will face charges as well.

Henry Charles Davis, of Chicago, Illinois, faces nine counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, pandering, transporting a female for purposes of prostitution and accepting proceeds from prostitution. He remained jailed in Detroit Thursday afternoon.

Davis was arraigned Thursday. Magistrate Thomas Shannon set bail at $2 million.

Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan said the investigation was continuing and he expected additional people would face charges.  "We are at the tip of the iceberg at this point," Duggan said.

Police say Davis led a ring that kidnapped women from Ohio and Illinois, sexually assaulted them, then forced them into prostitution and made them dance at illegal after-hours clubs.  

"It appears to have operated much like a cult -- that is, they would pick on women who were runaways, who were estranged from their families, who they thought were vulnerable," Duggan said. Discipline was enforced by group beatings, a process called "violating," he said.

Davis has been in custody since Monday night, when a 17-year-old Ohio girl escaped during a shopping trip with two men and a woman from the ring. The girl ran into a shoe store and screamed for help from security guard Dorian McConnell, who took her to police.

"I thought I was helping one young lady, and it turned into something I had no idea about," McConnell said.

The girl told police she was kidnapped in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, January 9 and driven first to Chicago, then to Detroit. A raid Monday night turned up several other young women and girls, including a 20-year-old woman who told police she also had been kidnapped, Duggan said.

Authorities had been investigating the case since early September, when a girl came into a precinct and claimed she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted, and had managed to break free. She was unable to guide authorities to the home or provide specific descriptions, Detroit Police Cmdr. Gerard Simon said.

"The problem has been over the years, in a number of cases where it's been reported, that there are a number of women who are voluntarily in the ring and a number of others who are coerced," Duggan said. "When it would come to the attention of authorities, the women who were voluntarily in the ring would step forward and say, 'Hey, they participated freely.' That made it an extremely difficult case for law enforcement to pursue."

When police raided the house suspected of being the ring's base of operations late Monday night, they found seven girls and women ranging from age 13 to 21. At least two were juveniles, Simon said.  

Source: www.cnn.com