Police: Teen prostituted stepsister, 7
Authorities in Trenton say the girl was taken to a party at which she was gang-raped for money.
TRENTON - It started with a seemingly innocent party invitation. A 15-year-old girl and her 7-year-old stepsister were headed to an apartment down the street from their home near the Statehouse, where they had been hanging around outside on Sunday afternoon.
For the younger girl, police say, the visit quickly descended into a horrifying ordeal as she was gang-raped by as many as seven men while her sister not only watched, but got paid by the participants.
The girls' parents thought they might have run away.
"We're talking about a kid who told her sister to go into an apartment and let people rape her," Trenton Police Capt. Joseph Juniak said. "It's unfathomable."
The teen has been charged with aggravated sexual assault, promoting prostitution, and other crimes. Her name was not released because of her age, but the county prosecutor plans to ask the court to try her as an adult. She is held at the Mercer County Youth Detention Center.
When the girls did not return home by 4:30 on Sunday afternoon, their parents called police, believing the older one had run away from home and taken her sister with her.
But the girls were in a 13th-floor apartment at Rowan Towers, a high-rise complex so dangerous that Trenton police are hired as security guards at night.
"They keep it clean on the outside, but it's what's on the inside that you have to worry about," said neighbor William Johnson, who says police come out of the building all the time.
In Apartment 13-C, police said, the 7-year-old was soon left alone as her sister headed to a back bedroom to sell sex to several men. When she returned, she handed her sister money and encouraged her to let the men touch her.
"It went from touching to straight-out assault and rape," Juniak said. "They threatened to kill her if she screamed or told anyone."
Afterward, the child put on her clothes and left. Her sister stayed with the men.
Two women found the child crying outside the apartment and walked her home, where police were waiting.
The girl told them what happened and was treated at a hospital. When police found the 15-year-old that night, she also described what happened and was arrested.
Mayor Doug Palmer said the alleged crimes were among the worst he'd seen in 20 years in office.
"It's sickening," he said. "The police are taking this personal. I know there's a place in hell for all the people that participated in this and I'm sure they will get there."
"As a father with a 7-year-old daughter, I can't imagine the horror," he added.
Lauren Kidd, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Children and Families, said state and federal confidentiality laws prohibited the agency from commenting about any possible previous involvement with the family. But Juniak suggested the agency may have had contact with the older girl.
Police are scouring video from lobby and elevator cameras to try to identify those at the party. They believe there were about a dozen people in the apartment, mostly teen boys and young men who police say likely broke in - a fairly common occurrence in the neighborhood, in the shadow of the Statehouse's golden dome.
Councilwoman Annette Lartique, who represents the area, said the community would expect prosecution of everyone involved to the fullest extent of the law.
"I know we are going to send a message on this one," she said. "Everybody will pay a price, from the person who opened the door to the person who pushed the elevator button."