A Chicago woman being pimped in Miami Springs passed a note to get free, prosecutors say
A passed note led to freedom for a woman forced into prostitution in Miami Springs and jail for the pimp who entrapped her in Chicago, police and prosecutors say.
Exactly what was said in the note wasn’t clear. What is clear is 42-year-old Dennis Washington was arrested at the Clarion Hotel, 5301 NW 36th. St., on Dec. 30, and has spent New Year’s Eve and the first nine days of 2022 in Miami-Dade Corrections custody.
Washington’s bond was set at $47,000 on charges of human trafficking for commercial sexual activity; human trafficking for commercial sexual activity that crosses the Florida state line; unlawful use of a communications device; using a rental space for prostitution; battery on a police officer; resisting an officer with violence; felony marijuana possession; and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Washington has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The note was referred to in a Jan. 3 tweet from the account of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, which read, “ am so proud of my #EndHumanTrafficking Task Force as they work daily to rescue victims of this modern-day slavery. On Friday, they rescued a young woman who had the courage to escape her trafficker by writing a note asking for help.”
As for what was in the note and to whom it was sent, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office emailed that “Additional information relating to this case and these matters will be available upon the providing of discovery to defense counsel.”
From Chicago to the Clarion
The arrest forms say police went to the Clarion Hotel and found the woman in the lobby with security. She told them she was being “pimped out” of room No. 527 by a guy she called “Dennis Washington” or “TY” (Washington’s middle name is Tyrone).
She later told police she’d met Washington in November while working as a street prostitute in Chicago. He rolled up and promised to save her from the pimp that had her on the street. She said she got into his white Jeep, and Washington drove them to a Bolingbrook, a small suburb about a half hour outside Chicago proper. At a hotel there, she told police, Washington gave her crack and had sex with her.
But when she woke up, Washington had taken her cash and her personal identification, and then announced she was selling herself for him. With the usual violence — punching, choking — and threats of death to her and her family, she said, Washington kept her under his control and prostituting herself three to five times a day.
On Dec. 28, she said they got into Washington’s 2014 Jeep Utility vehicle, left the Romeoville, Illinois Holiday Inn and drove down to the Clarion Inn.
Miami Springs police officers say when they went to room No. 527 on Dec. 30, they got no answer at the door. But a man who fit the description of the six-foot-one, 215-pound Washington got off the elevators, headed toward the room, then pivoted and headed back for the elevators when he saw police. Police say Washington claimed to be looking for a woman in room No. 423, but that fell apart when a man in room No. 423 said he didn’t know Washington.
While officers ran a check on Washington’s name, they say he tried to run through an officer to get to a stairwell. A scuffle officers estimated at one to two minutes ensued and ended with Washington in handcuffs.
