Feds: 16-year-old girl was repeatedly prostituted via website in Erie sex-trafficking case
From May to July 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, a first-floor apartment at Payne Avenue and East Sixth Street in Erie was the site of constant child sex trafficking that originated online.
The tenant, 20-year-old Ali M. McCoy, is accused of prostituting a 16-year-old girl for sex after advertising her availability for "dates" on a website for an escort service for adults, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The office said McCoy knew the girl was 16, and that he split the money made from the sexual encounters with her.
Using text messages and other digital information as evidence, the FBI determined McCoy used a website to arrange for as many as 30 people to have sex with the 16-year-old during the "dates" in a bedroom reserved for the activity, the prosecutor on the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold, said in federal court in Erie.
"Clearly a lot of trafficking activity" was taking place in the apartment, in the 600 block of Payne Avenue, Trabold said. He said the digital evidence, including messages between "Ms. McCoy and customers" is "overwhelming."
Trabold commented on Thursday at a detention hearing for McCoy, who was indicted July 11 and arraigned July 19, the same day the indictment was unsealed. McCoy is charged with one felony count of sex trafficking of a child and attempted sex trafficking of a child.
McCoy is a biological male who uses feminine pronouns, according to statements in court.
McCoy has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, she faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of life.
Tip that led to sex-trafficking probe came from State College
The investigation of McCoy started in mid-July 2022, when the FBI received information from authorities in State College that a minor female was being trafficked for sex in Erie via a website for the escort service, Trabold said in court. The precise location of the activity was not known at the time, and the FBI in Erie worked with the Millcreek Township Police Department, which has experience with sex-trafficking operations, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The investigators determined the activity was occurring in the first-floor apartment that McCoy was renting in a two-unit apartment house in the 600 block of Payne Avenue, on the city of Erie's lower east side. The FBI and police used search warrants to gather evidence.
Investigators seized a laptop, three iPhones, $577 in cash and two subscriber identity module cards, or SIM cards, according to the indictment. The cards are inserted into cell phones and store data identifying the user.
The investigators also interviewed McCoy and the 16-year-old girl, who is now safe, Trabold said in court. The identity of the the girl and how she came to get involved with McCoy have not been disclosed in court records.
The digital evidence shows that McCoy was present when the sexual encounters with the 16-year-old took place. In one message, Trabold said, McCoy told the girl to "hurry up" with one customer because another customer was arriving at the apartment.
Trabold said the sex trafficking at the apartment stopped after the FBI got involved at the end of July 2022. Investigators continued to examine the evidence before indicting McCoy a year later.
Federal magistrate denies bond for defendant
McCoy has been in prison following her arrest July 19. A Thursday's detention hearing, McCoy's court-appointed lawyer, Patrick Nightingale, of Pittsburgh, asked Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard A. Lanzillo to release McCoy on bond to the custody of his mother.
McCoy did not testify. Trabold opposed the request, citing the nature of the charges.
Lanzillo refused to release McCoy. The judge said he had no issues about the ability of McCoy's mother to monitor McCoy, but said the evidence against McCoy is significant and "the offense charged in and of itself is of great concern."
No trial date has been set. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon, who is based in Pittsburgh but hears some cases in federal court in Erie.
The indictment of McCoy is the latest case that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh, which includes a satellite office in Erie, has prosecuted as part as part of Project Safe Childhood. It is a nationwide initiative that the U.S. Department of Justice launched in 2006 to fight sexual exploitation and abuse of children.
Indictment: Federal grand jury indicts Erie man on charge of sex trafficking of minor girl in 2022
A look at laws nationwide: Human trafficking laws were supposed to help women. Victims’ stories say otherwise.
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Sex-trafficking case in Erie tied to website, federal prosecutor says
