Broward couple coerce woman to strip for cash. That’s when things went awry, cops say
.jpg "Matthew Daniel Vincent, 30, and Deja A. Washington, 23, of Pembroke Pines, Florida were accused of human trafficking after they were arrested at the parking lot of a hotel just north of Miami International Airport on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023.")
A Broward County couple purchased a one-way plane ticket earlier this month for a woman to strip for cash in South Florida clubs. Instead, they forced her into prostitution and kept all of her money, authorities say.
Matthew Daniel Vincent, 30, and Deja A. Washington, 23, were each charged with human trafficking for the purpose of commercial sex activity, deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution and directing another to a place of prostitution. Vincent, who is in probation in Broward for robbery and aggravated battery with a firearm, also was charged with sexual battery by coercion, court records show. A judge also ordered them to stay away from the victim.
The Pembroke Pines pair was arrested Oct. 19 outside a hotel just north of Miami International Airport, according to their arrest reports. They remained at Miami-Dade’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Tuesday afternoon, county jail records show. Washington pleaded not guilty on Friday.
“Traffickers have no problem targeting their victims with colorful promises of money and excitement,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Monday in a news release. “Instead, victims lose their humanity as they find themselves reduced to simple money-making machines for those exploiting them.”
According to the suspects’ arrest reports, the victim told Miami Springs police she met the duo through a friend in Kentucky and later contacted Washington on a social media app. She said Washington offered to buy her a plane ticket to Miami and that the pair later called her on the phone with the promise they would “take care” of her and that she would be able to work for money.
After buying her a plane ticket from Kentucky to Miami, investigators say, the victim said the pair instructed her to dance at two Broward strip clubs: Vixens Cabaret, 3050 Burris Rd., Davie, and The Playhouse Gentlemens Club, 5775 Hallandale Beach Blvd, West Park. The victim said Vincent and Washington kept all the money she earned in the last two weeks, nothing they bought her some clothes and shoes.
Neither Vixens nor Playhouse immediately responded to Miami Herald’s request for comment.
But the exploitation didn’t stop there, the victim told police. She detailed how the suspects also made her have sex with men at Clarion Inn, 5301 NW 36th St., Miami Springs — and elsewhere. In conjunction with her dancing, she had to make at least $1,000 daily, which required her to have sex with three men every day.
“She stated that they told her to give them all the money because she did not have a bank account,” officers said on the reports.
On Oct. 17, the victim packed her bag and fled with a friend from one of the strip clubs because she didn’t want to continue having sex with men arranged by the suspects. Vincent, who was tracking her cellphone’s location, found her, head butted her and “coerced her to come back with them by mentioning all her family problems at home,” officers said in the reports.
Later that day, Vincent told her to give him oral sex. When she refused, he put on a condom and forced her to do it in Washington’s presence, she told police.
“She didn’t resist him out of fear at that point,” officers said in the reports. “She stated she feels he did that to punish her for trying to run away from them.”
On Oct. 18, a tip from Vincent’s probation officer alerted the State Attorney’s Office that the victim “was in a sex slave situation” after a friend of the victim contacted the officer, police say. After going to the Clarion Inn and not finding her, officers located her the next day at the hotel and took her to safety.
Officers then surveilled the hotel’s parking lot until they detained the suspects in a black Mercedes Benz hours later. What Vincent admitted to doing was redacted from the reports by authorities who cited an ongoing investigation.
To report Human Trafficking to law enforcement in Florida, call 1-855-FLA-SAFE or 1-855-352-7233. To get help from the National Human Trafficking Hotline, call 1-888-373-7888 or visit humantraffickinghotline.org. To get help for victims and survivors of human trafficking or to connect with local services, text “HELP” to 233733.
This story was originally published October 23, 2023 at 5:04 PM.
