Senior Housing Pimp Goes To Prison For Eight Years

By Christina Carrega

A St. Albans man who admitted to pimping out a teenage girl from inside a Jamaica senior citizen residence was sentenced on Friday to up to eight years in prison, prosecutors announced on Monday.

“The trauma this teenage girl suffered is incomprehensible and is something she will have to live with for the rest of her life,” said Queens County District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “The sentence imposed by the Court is appropriate given the vile nature of the crime committed.”

Joseph Gilbert was sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Justice Peter F. Vallone Jr. to four to eight years in prison.

Gilbert, 26, coerced a drug-addicted elderly person to use its home from December 2016 to March 2017 as the place to prostitute a young girl for cash, prosecutors said.

The admitted pimp also threatened the 16-year-old girl and, on at least one occasion, pummeled her when she told him that she no longer wanted to perform sex work.

At some point, the young girl escaped from the senior home and reported her ordeal to police.