Maryland woman charged with 135 counts linked to sex trafficking ring

At some point during her stay, authorities said the woman, who has not been identified, told hospital staff she had been sold for sex by another woman – Kenika Danielle Leach , 33 years old – then “compensated” with drugs.

This woman's story launched what would become a two-year investigation into a massive sex trafficking operation led by Leach, who now faces 135 counts of running a criminal organization and conspiring to commit commit sex trafficking by force, threat and coercion. or fraud.

The takedown of Leach's operation, which spanned three Maryland counties, was led by the Attorney General's Organized Crime Unit, in concert with the City of Baltimore and the Maryland State Police, and highlights the sophistication of sex trafficking rings in the region that advocates consider alarming and common.

“There are sex trafficking rings all over the state of Maryland,” said Natasha Guynes, founder of the HER Resiliency Center in Baltimore, which helps young women overcome addiction, homelessness and sexual abuse. “This is happening everywhere.”

Business models vary, she said, but the networks profit from physical and psychological abuse of people already vulnerable to society's challenges — which authorities say happened in the operation by Leach.

Between December 2019 and 2021, according to court documents, the “Pussy Kat Klub” operation repeatedly coerced at least 11 women into performing sexual acts with men for a negotiated price. Leach, known as the “First Lady” of the operation, would arrange the appointments and collect the money through Cash App, authorities said.

Within Leach's operations were male and female employees known as supervisors, according to court documents. Part of their tasks was recruiting women, many of whom came from Hagerstown, Maryland, in Washington County, a transit hub in the state's western panhandle. The women, who were not identified in court documents, were “particularly vulnerable to exploitation” because of their drug addiction or lack of housing, authorities said. Male supervisors lured them into the “Club” by developing romantic relationships with them, according to the indictment, and then hooking them up with Leach to be sold for sex.

Leach's operation would allow women to meet male “guests” in at least nine hotels in Washington, Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties, including those located in direct proximity to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, according to archives.

Leach would give the women a daily ration of drugs – including cocaine – but control or restrict their access to them to “coerce them into engaging in commercial sex acts,” according to the indictment. Authorities said Leach knew these women were actively suffering from addiction and created a dynamic in which the women owed him a “drug debt” that was repaid through sexual acts. The profits went directly to Leach, according to court documents, which allegedly understated the women's share of the profits.

Authorities said this locked women “in an endless cycle of debt.”

“Sex trafficking is a horrific crime that often preys on people suffering from drug addiction, exploiting their addiction to coerce and control them,” state Attorney General Anthony G. Brown said in a statement. “The lasting harm caused to survivors is profound. »

Leach is represented by the Washington County Public Defender's Office, which did not respond to a request for comment on the case. Prosecutors declined an interview request due to the ongoing criminal case.

In the indictment, authorities said Leach's abuse was known to Washington County police as early as January 2020, when officers arrested her on charges of kidnapping, armed robbery, assault and violation of home for kidnapping a woman who owed him a “drug debt”. »

At the time, Herald-Mail Media reported that Leach and several others allegedly took the Hagerstown woman from her mother's house. The abducted woman was a heroin addict, the news agency reported.

Leach was charged alongside two others, including a man authorities named in the recent sex trafficking indictment as one of the “supervisors” of her operation. The other person, a woman, was identified by the attorney general's office as one of the trafficking victims, as was the abducted woman.

According to court records, Leach pleaded guilty in the 2020 case to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit a home invasion and the other, more serious charges were dropped. She was sentenced to three years in prison, records show, suspended in part due to credit for time served while awaiting trial.

Authorities cited the home invasion as an example of how Leach “frequently used physical violence to control women.”

When Leach thought the women had disobeyed her rules, authorities said she told them to “get on the wall” and cover their faces so she could beat them without “ruining their faces.”

“This allowed the women to remain presentable after being beaten,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.

Leach also used “intimidation and manipulation,” including close surveillance in public, such as when the women went to the hospital or wanted to leave their hotel rooms to get ice cream.

In the sex trafficking indictment, officials said Leach would solicit sexually explicit photos from the women to post on popular escort websites, including Skip the Games, Escort Alligator, Mega Personals and List Crawler. The ads, authorities said, featured a “menu” of commercial sex acts with corresponding prices and listed Leach's home phone numbers or Google Voice as the point of contact.

The so-called supervisors of the operation, as well as the men who paid to have sex with the women, have not been criminally charged, said Thomas Lester, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.

“Attorney General Brown’s commitment to public safety includes prosecuting cases like this and holding accountable those who prey on vulnerable victims in our community for their own financial gain,” Lester said in a statement.

Guynes said the state and federal government need to invest more to support child and adult victims of sex trafficking, many of whom she said are “hidden in plain sight.”

“You've probably sat next to a sex trafficking victim on a plane without knowing it. You’ve probably seen a sex trafficking victim at a gas station,” she said. “When I say hidden in plain sight, that’s exactly what it is.”

In Maryland, she said, there are organizations advocating for more funding, strong training for law enforcement to recognize sex trafficking and creative programs to reach out to victims where they are.

But the cycle continues, she said.

“Resources expire too soon, so women keep coming back,” she said. “We use the words trauma and trauma-informed a lot, but do we know what that means?