Ridgewood man pleads guilty to trafficking teen girls

By Jonathan Sperling

A Ridgewood man who tried forcing two teen girls to have sex with men for cash as part of a trafficking operation pleaded guilty in Queens Criminal Court on Tuesday.

Eddy Florence, 34, admitted to placing prostitution advertisements on various escort service websites, such as Backpage.com, for the two teen victims, aged 13 and 15. Justice Peter Vallone Jr. indicated that he would sentence Florence to a term of seven to 14 years in prison on Aug. 1.

“The defendant has now admitted to forcing a teenage girl into having sex with men for cash. Sex trafficking is an incessant act of brutality and degradation that scars its victims for life,” Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan said in a statement.

Florence forced the 13-year-old victim to have sex with strangers for money and demanded that she turn over all of the money she earned from prostitution to him. When she did not make enough money, Florence would yell violently and threaten her, Ryan said.