Florida Man Ran Sex-Trafficking Ring on BK Street: Feds

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – A Florida man forced women to work as prostitutes along a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York, according to a five-count indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors on Thursday.

Joel David Forney, 41, of Kissimmee, was arrested and charged Wednesday with three counts of sex trafficking, one count of violating the Mann Act and coercion and enticement of a minor, authorities said.

From the summer of 2016 until at least 2022, Forney trafficked three women and lured them from their homes under a false promise of a legitimate job offer, prosecutors said.

“This Office seeks to hold Forney accountable for his cruel and depraved crimes. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to eradicate the degradation of women forced into sex work at the Penn Track and elsewhere in the district,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said.

Forney would traffic the women in hotel rooms across multiple states, including New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and in Brooklyn on Pennsylvania Avenue — a location known for commercial sex known as the "Penn Track," according to the indictment.

One victim left her home in Wisconsin to travel with Forney, who later raped her inside a hotel room, according to the indictment.

Forney then photographed her and posted ads on the internet using her photo to promote commercial sex, prosecutors said.

As a way to intimidate the victim, Forney showed a photograph on his phone of a dismembered woman and told her that “This is what happens to bi-----s who leave their pimps.”

The 41-year-old man would force his victims to follow a list of rules and kept the majority of the cash proceeds, prosecutors said. If the women disobeyed his orders, he used physical violence, and sometimes death threats, as a form of punishment, officials said.

If convicted, Forney faces a minimum term of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to prosecutors.