Couple Accused of Using Foster Care System for Sex Trafficking Scheme
The New York Times
Prosecutors in Manhattan say Kareem and Sharice Mitchell trafficked eight women, including two whom Ms. Mitchell had taken in as foster children.
A married couple was charged with sex trafficking young women into a prostitution operation on Wednesday — a scheme that prosecutors said in some cases involved the use of New York’s foster care system to gain access to potential victims.
The authorities said the couple, Kareem Mitchell, 38, and Sharice Mitchell, 51, ran a sex trafficking operation that pushed at least eight women into prostitution, including at least two who were Ms. Mitchell’s foster children. Both defendants were charged in State Supreme Court in Manhattan with multiple counts of sex trafficking and with fourth-degree conspiracy and pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s human trafficking unit said that Mr. Mitchell, a registered sex offender, had run the sex trafficking operation between November 2018 and February 2022. He recruited women through social media and then used physical and verbal abuse to coerce them into prostitution in cars and hotels in Manhattan, as well as in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, the authorities said.
