Missing girl from Boston found dancing at Providence strip club
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
Another 15-year-old girl, who was missing from Brockton, was also found by police at a Seekonk motel where the man has been living.
Troy Footman, 51, is now charged with sex trafficking, as police investigate him for recruiting teenage girls from Boston down to Providence to work as exotic dancers and prostitutes, said Providence police Maj. David Lapatin. The Boston girl is now in the custody of state child welfare, and the Brockton girl has been returned to her family, the police said.
After getting a tip from Boston police and agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, two Providence detectives found the girl and 51-year-old Troy Footman inside Cheaters on Allens Avenue late Monday night, Lapatin said.
(Boston police have been investigating for several months the trafficking of teenage girls to Providence.)
As Footman left the hot-pink strip club with two other women, the police stopped his white Cadillac SUV and arrested him, Lapatin said.
Inside the club, the teen girl approached the undercover detectives and solicited them for sex, said Providence police Capt. Anthony Sauro.
Meanwhile, the police searched Footman's room at Mary's Motor Lodge in Seekonk, and found the missing 15-year-old Brockton girl, said Seekonk police Chief Craig Mace.
Footman was arraigned Tuesday and held on $150,000 surety bail on sex trafficking of a minor, as the investigation continues. The Seekonk police are also seeking to charge him with failing to register as a sex offender, Mace said.
Footman had bounced between the motor lodge and the Town & Country Motel in Seekonk, Mace said, and it wasn't immediately known how long he'd been living at either place. But as a convicted sex offender, Footman is required to register where he's living. His last address was in Dorchester.
Footman has a quarter-century history of sex crimes, from a rape conviction in 1986, to being convicted of running a prostitution ring with girls as young as 14 from Massachusetts to Delaware. According to court records, Footman and another prostitute were running underage girls to prostitute themselves at various places, including a truck stop in Delaware, and taking their money.
The 15-year-old girl found at Cheaters had a Delaware state ID that showed her to be over 21, as well as an ID from Boston College, both of which she showed to the strip club management, the club's representative David C. Tapalian said in an email Friday. The club's manager has color copies of both IDs.
“This is an unfortunate incident and we applaud the respective state and federal agencies in the arrest of the alleged perpetrator,†Tapalian said in an emailed statement. “At Cheaters they only hire girls 18 years or above and always check two forms of id.â€
Cheaters was one of 10 strip clubs in Providence that signed a pledge in July 2009 with the city Board of Licenses that they wouldn't knowingly employ anyone under 18. Then-Mayor David N. Cicilline also signed an executive order prohibiting the license board from issuing adult entertainment licenses to establishments that employ minors.
The issue had come up that year when the Providence Journal reported that the police had concluded there was no law forbidding it. At the time, the police were investigating a 16-year-old runaway from Boston, who told them that she'd been working at Cheaters. The police also had tips about other underage girls working at another club on Allens Avenue.
It now illegal for anyone under age 18 to work in any capacity in a strip club.
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Sounds fucking crazy I know but crazy shit like that has happened in the past.
Like did u guys hear about tad nugent?? He is a stupid old guy who playd guitar and han a stupid reality show. Im ok wit hunting some animals but not with Nugent cause he is an asswhole. i heard he hunt illegal and just tortures animals an thats not cool. I also heard that Courtney Luv gave him a bj when she was 12. that is sick an i think nugent is just an asswhole like this Troy guy
As to PLs who were inadvertently involved in this, I believe the authorities will exercise prosecutorial discretion and decide it's not worth going strict on them for regular shows/dances, as they'd have a reasonable expectation that management had done the checking. OTOH if they can identify any who they can prove engaged in actual sex with her, those guys could be in trouble, but it would be a more complicated investigation to carry out.
As far as the PL's? Find out which guys took her back that, identify them, then prove what actually happened back there. That is a massive amount of leg work for cops, and knowing RI cops they won't want to do it.
I could see the City and the Law going hard after Cheaters. There have been plans to renovate that whole area and Cheaters is right in the middle of it. Plus they were the ones who argued they could legally hire minors a few years ago. Those guys probably have no leash when it comes to law enforcement.
I think that, any time an adult has sex with a minor, there is sufficient grounds for an indictment (of the adult). However, proof (beyond a reasonable doubt) of intent to commit an act which (you are presumed to know) is unlawful is required for you to be convicted. A lack of reasonable care to avoid fucking a minor would be considered a form of intent. The prosecution might successfully argue the club was so sketchy a reasonable person would not rely on an assurance from the club that dancers were not minors. Prosecutors don't always indict when they have grounds, they prioritize cases based on the chances of winning.
But, it seems like the females in questions always get a pass and are always portrayed as sexual victims as if they had absolutely no choice in the life they are leading.
I am sure there are young women whom are forced or brainwashed into doing sexual work against their will – but IMO this seems to be the minority of those involved in sex work.
The aforementioned Traci Lords started doing pornos around 16 I believe; I don’t recall it ever being mentioned she was forced to do it.
Famous porn actress Jenna Jamerson I believe started stripping at 16 or 17; again I’ve never heard that it was b/c someone forced her.
And some of us have come across; or heard stories from other SCers; of girls that willingly got into stripping at 16 or 17.
There are a lot of young girls that are runaways for w/e reasons (legit or not) and they want to do their thing and live their lives as they see fit – like many females (especially attractive ones); they quickly realize they can make good and quick $$$ selling their bodies (stripping or escorting) and thus decide to do so.
I often see those shows on TV where advocates try to convince the girls to “leave the life†– more often than not I don’t see the girls/women run into the saving arms of the advocates; rather they usually turn down the offers of “help†and these girls/women do not want to give up the life.
While I agree with the sentiment, I don't agree with the "especially" part. Sex is no more or less sacrosanct than anything else when it comes to consent. Elevating some above others is what allows things like stealing your money for a "good cause" or forbidding you sugary drinks for "your own good" to sound acceptable.
*Any* and *all* coercion initiated against another person is bad, whether it be to make one pick one's nose to to kill one's self.
I'm referring to actual rights violations against individual people, not circumstances, even those caused by stupid people, that are really just inconveniences.
I don’t think your comment correlates to my post.
Yes – an underage girl should not be dancing in a SC (forced or o/w) – but the dancer in question did submit fake IDs so I don’t think the club may be liable if she lied.
My post had to do w/ many of these young women being portrayed as absolute unwilling victims where it seems they know what they are doing (and are old enough to know what they are doing) and it seems more often than not they are willing and wanting to do it.
This does not mean than anyone pimping out an underage girl, or any woman/person, should not be prosecuted for it even if the pimpee was willing to partake.
Now as to the matter of ID and responsibility for verifying it I can imagine the club arguing that "hey, all we're required to do is ask for ID and keep it on file; we don't get to rent a police station/gun store computer terminal to run an instant background check"; and the authorities saying "hey it's not the first time, a reasonable person would have taken steps".