Man charged with acting as pimp to juvenile prostitutes

HARRISBURG, Pa. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ? A man running a prostitution ring recruited girls younger than 18 ? once paying $600 for a 17-year-old girl ? and moved them from state to state for his business, a federal grand jury said in an indictment.

Franklin Robinson, 36, of Toledo, Ohio, was arraigned Tuesday on a seven-count indictment after being arrested in Michigan, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod in Harrisburg.

Authorities said Robinson, using such aliases as Michael Tucker, “Silk,” and “Silky Red,” has run prostitution rings in at least 10 states since 2001: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland and Tennessee, as well as Washington, D.C.

He pleaded not guilty to charges that include three counts of transporting minors across state lines with the intent to engage in sexual activity.

Earlier this year, he allegedly brought two girls from Toledo to work as prostitutes in Harrisburg, the grand jury said. The indictment claims he recruited prostitutes from Georgia, Ohio and New York and brought 12 prostitutes from Toledo to work in Harrisburg in March.

Court records say Robinson wired more than $3,500 related to his prostitution activities from the Harrisburg area to Ohio and Indiana in 2001.

He is quoted in the indictment telling someone that he once beat a prostitute so badly his hands swelled up, and with threatening to cut the throat of a man he thought was causing trouble for one of his girls.

Zubrod declined comment on the case. Robinson’s lawyer, Heidi R. Freese, said she has spoken with Robinson ? who is being held without bail at the Dauphin County Prison ? since being appointed his lawyer earlier in the week.

“All I can tell you at this point is it appears to be a complicated case,” she said Friday.

The grand jury this week also indicted George Finley Esquire and Harold L. Harris, described as Robinson’s half brothers or stepbrothers, for attempting to destroy photographs at Robinson’s home that were evidence.

Those alleged acts occurred on Nov. 10, one day after Esquire had testified before the Harrisburg grand jury, according to court records.

Esquire, 24, allegedly gave investigators and the grand jury “false, misleading and evasive” statements about his involvement with Robinson. Harris is accused of helping Esquire evade police surveillance by driving him at high speeds from the Toledo airport.

The two men are charged with obstruction of justice, witness tampering and conspiracy.