Baltimore woman faces 135 charges for running Maryland sex trafficking ring

A Baltimore woman faces 135 charges related to running a sex trafficking organization that police say forced at least 11 people into prostitution for nearly two years.

Kenika D. Leach, 33, was charged in Washington County, one of three Maryland counties where police say the ring operated, and the Maryland Attorney General's Office is prosecuting the case. They say she called her group “The Pussy Kat Klub” and exploited women who were vulnerable due to drug addiction or homelessness.

Leach created a dynamic that led to women owing him a “drug debt,” cutting off their drug supply unless they engaged in commercial sex acts, the indictment says. If women wanted an extra dose or couldn't afford to pay, the money they earned through sex work often went directly to Leach.

Investigators say Leach and his co-conspirators – Harold Flichman, Darryl Moore and Stephanie Guessford – advertised women of “all flavors.”[,] shapes[,] and sizes” on escort sites. Leach determined the type of work, including duration and price, that women would perform and communicated with customers using coded language. “Donations” and “roses,” for example, meant payment.

The money often went directly to Leach, who police say received nearly $40,000 between July 2020 and December 2021.

The women were told to text Leach to ask for basic needs like toilet paper, cell phone chargers, condoms and food, according to charging documents, or to get permission to leave the room if they were experiencing withdrawal symptoms. They also asked him for their daily ration of medicine via SMS.

According to the indictment, Leach physically assaulted several women for disobeying his rules, even though she was careful to avoid their faces. One day, Leach and Flichman, one of the supervisors, kidnapped a woman from her mother's house in Hagerstown because she had a “drug debt.”

Police began their investigation in December 2021 after a woman went to the hospital with painful cramps and told medical staff she was being trafficked.

Police arrested Leach on unrelated warrants in January. She is due in court on June 24.