The teenage girl lived most of her life with her grandmother on a quiet Anne Arundel County street not far from the bay. She practiced her dance routines on the front lawn and swam in the in-ground pool in the backyard.
But at 16 the girl left it all behind for an apartment in an Annapolis public housing community and a chance to be with her mother - a woman, prosecutors said, who forced her daughter into prostitution for cash and drugs.
"We need it for the family for food," the 34-year-old mother told her daughter, before arranging for her to have sex with a 59-year-old man on their living room couch, according to charging documents.
A year after the girl turned in her mother to police, the woman was convicted yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court of one count of prostitution. The woman, whom The Sun is not naming in order to protect the identity of the victim, entered an Alford plea, which allows her to deny guilt but concede that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict her. She was handed a five-year suspended sentence and five years of supervised probation.
Judge William C. Mulford II also ordered her to register as a sex offender for 10 years, complete parenting classes and a drug and alcohol treatment plan, and have no contact with the victim without the girl's permission. Her two younger daughters by another man are in the custody of the county Department of Social Services. The woman has been on home detention in Prince George's County since April, two months after her arrest.
"To say what you've done in this case is reprehensible is an understatement, and, quite frankly, the last thing your daughter needs to do is re-live the memories. After what you've done to her, it's the least you can do," Mulford said, referring to the plea. "She's going to live with this for quite some time."
Dressed in a baggy, faded black T-shirt and blue jeans, the woman declined to comment after the hearing. The woman's defense attorney, Thomas F. Ellis III, said the punishment levied against his client will be "of great benefit to her."
Prosecutor Frank J. Ragione told the court that the victim is moving on with her life.
"She would have done what she had to do if necessary, but she was very happy to resolve this matter," Ragione said.
In an interview with The Sun earlier this year, the victim said, "All I ever wanted was my mother and father to love me like I was their child. My mother never loved me like she loved her other children. ... If I didn't do anything for her, I was useless to her."
