Baltimore pimp convicted on two counts of sex trafficking minor girls

A federal jury convicted 26-year-old Ryan Russell Parks, AKA “Dinero,” of Baltimore, Maryland, for two counts of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of using the Internet to promote a business enterprise involving prostitution.  The verdict was delivered on July 18 following a four-day trial.

“Ryan Parks preyed on vulnerable girls in order to profit by selling them for sex.  When an adult profits from sex with a child, that is human trafficking, period,” said Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur. 

According to the evidence presented at his trial, Parks trafficked two minors, a 16-year-old girl (Girl 1) and a 15-year-old girl (Girl 2) – for commercial sex.  According to trial testimony, Parks met Girl 1 online.  During their communications Parks learned that she was hungry and had no real place to live; and he offered the underaged girl a place to stay.  Parks sent a car to pick her up.  Within a day, he caused advertisements to be posted on a website that marketed commercial sex workers. 

These advertisements contained photographs and descriptions of Girl 1 and offered her up for commercial sex acts.  Parks stayed with her in the motel room, along with another woman he was advertising on the Internet for commercial sex.  Parks would leave the room for short periods of time when men would come to the room to have sex with the minor.  He would return to the room after the men left the room. 

Parks paid for additional advertisements on the website offering Girl 1 for commercial sex on August 1, and August 2, 2017.  Girl 1 did not get to keep the money that she was paid by the men who came to the room to have sex with her.  One of Girl 1’s customers returned to the room the next day to rescue her, and he took her to live in a different city with his sister.

The evidence also proved that in November 2017, Parks met Girl 2 online and learned that she had run away from her foster home.  On November 16, 2017, he paid a driver through an application on his cell phone to pick up that second minor victim and bring her to his home. 

The 15-year-old girl told Parks that she was 17 years, that she was in foster care and that she was in an unhappy situation.  Parks provided her with marijuana and had sex with her.  He talked to her about making money through prostitution and then took her to the same motel in Baltimore where he had harbored his first minor victim. 

Because she ran away from her foster home without a coat, a purse, or change of clothing, Parks purchased a bra, panties, and condoms for the girl.  He took pictures of her and paid for an online advertisement offering her up for commercial sex.  Several of the photos that Parks uploaded to the website were rejected because they contained nudity and were too explicit. 

Less revealing photos the girl wearing the bra and panties purchased by Parks were accepted and uploaded to the online advertisement.  As he had with the first minor, Parks then set the prices and time limits for the sex acts to be performed on Girl 2.  He instructed her on the process of checking a man for a wire when he came into the motel room. 

Parks stayed in the motel room with the girl while other men were not present; but he left the room and stood outside in a stairwell when men arrived to have sex with her.  Parks offered Girl 2 for commercial sex from November 16 through November 20, 2017. 

During this time, over 300 individuals contacted the phone number placed by Parks on the advertisement, to inquire about commercial sex with Girl 2.  On November 21, 2017, Girl 2 contacted her foster care social worker, who dispatched police to the motel.  According to trial testimony, Parks reviewed Girl 2’s phone while she was in the shower and saw that she had contacted her social worker.  Parks became angry, told her to delete information from her phone and to remove the chip from her phone, and then he left the motel.  Girl 2 went to the lobby and turned herself in to police.

While law enforcement was investigating the trafficking of the two minor victims, they discovered evidence regarding the extent of Parks’ prostitution business.  Evidence at trial proved that from February 25, 2017, through the date that he was arrested on January 10, 2018, Parks paid over $1,000 for approximately 295 commercial sex advertisements placed on the Internet. 

Parks advertised approximately 27 different women and girls for commercial sex.  He also paid over $6,000 for hotel rooms in Baltimore County and Baltimore City, during the course of his prostitution enterprise.

As a result of his conviction, Parks will be required to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

Parks faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison for each of the two counts of sex trafficking a minor; and a maximum of five years in prison for using the Internet to promote a business enterprise involving prostitution.  Parks remains detained.

(Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland)

~  Written by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter