June 24, 2009|By Tricia Bishop | Tricia Bishop,tricia.bishop@baltsun.com
A federal judge denied a Westminster woman's request to withdraw her guilty plea Tuesday and sentenced her to 10 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor, a 17-year-old cousin whose sexual services she sold under the Internet heading "Available now."
Deborah Gail Frock, who was previously convicted of trying to blackmail a state prosecutor, claimed that the government coerced her to take the plea agreement by outlining plans to file additional charges that carried a minimum 30-year sentence if she didn't accept the deal.
"I got charged in Howard County for threatening a state's attorney, and that's what they're doing to me," Frock said in court, with two of her four daughters looking on.
"That's not a threat, that's reality," U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles said of the likelihood that more serious charges would have followed. "That's a promise."
According to a statement of facts contained within her plea agreement, Frock, 40, befriended the girl and supplied her with marijuana and crack cocaine. She also posted her photo online and, between July 2006 and October 2006, arranged for the teenager to engage in "commercial sex acts" with adult men and to participate in pornographic photo shoots in exchange for cash and drugs, which Frock pocketed.
When the defendant's attorney, Robert H. Waldman, asked her if she had anything to say, Frock shook her head. Earlier, Waldman had claimed that the victim was "already running around" before she met Frock and bemoaned the fact that his client was the only one receiving serious punishment. A Germantown man in his mid-50s convicted of filming the girl at the Westminster Inn received a sentence of six months' home detention from a Carroll County Circuit Court judge, according to court records.
The sex charges against Frock were brought in state court in 2007, but prosecutors chose not to pursue them.
She was charged in federal court through a criminal complaint filed in October 2008, about three months after she was convicted of threatening a state's attorney handling a drug case against her.
