Police have arrested an Oklahoma City woman on a human trafficking complaint after another woman claims the suspect forced her into prostitution for two day.
The woman called police Monday to say that Gloria Richey, 31, made her work against her will as a prostitute by threatening her 17-month-old child. When the accuser was able to escape, she says, Richey kept her cell phone and the proceeds of the alleged force prostitution.
The woman described her two days in forced prostitution as follows:
She claims she went to Richey's home to smoke marijuana with her Saturday, and once there, the two agreed to go to Stillwater to "party." She says Richey rented a hotel room and then informed her that she was going to have to prostitute herself. When she refused, she says, Richey threatened to harm her toddler if she did not participate in the prostitution.
From Stillwater, the two returned to Oklahoma City, where Richey allegedly forced her to create an advertisement on the online classified site Backpage. She received to responses to solicitation and met a man in Edmond and a man in Oklahoma City to have sex for money. She says that in between the two acts of prostitution from the Backpage ad, Richey took her to Robinson Avenue, where she forced her to prostitute herself on the street. On Robinson, she met another man with whom she had sex in exchange for money.
On Monday, the woman says she refused to participate any further. She demanded that Richey take her home, but instead, Richey allegedly tried to drop her off at the intersection of Reno and Rockwell. The woman says she would not leave the vehicle because Richey still had her cell phone and her money. She said that Richey then called a friend, who helped pull her from the car. Once out of the car, the woman says, she called police from a pay phone.
Police then found Richey and her friend at a local hotel. They say they found her accuser's cell phone and money in Richey's vehicle.
Richey was arrested on a human trafficking complaint and booked into the Oklahoma County Jail on $70,000 bond.
Oklahoma law defines human trafficking in 21 O.S. § 748 as "modern-day slavery that includes, but is not limited to, extreme exploitation and the denial of freedom or liberty of an individual for purposes of deriving benefit from that individual's commercial sex act or labor." It further defines sex trafficking as using "deception, force, fraud, threat or coercion" to engage a person in a commercial sex act; to entice, force, or coerce a minor to participate in a commercial sex act; or to benefit financially from human sex trafficking.
Any minor under the age of 18 engaged in a commercial sex act (prostitution or exotic dancing, for example) is considered to be a victim of human trafficking.
Human trafficking is a felony punishable by 5 years to life in prison.
