Runaway Teen Sex-Trafficked From Penn Station, Prosecutors Say

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A 14-year-old girl who ran away from home was lured away from Penn Station by a man who then raped and sex-trafficked her, prosecutors said Thursday.

The man, 62-year-old Glen Johnson, was indicted Thursday in connection with the trafficking scheme, which allegedly began on March 9 when he encountered the teenage girl at the train station, prosecutors contend.

The girl had taken an Amtrak train to Manhattan after fleeing her home, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office. Johnson offered to care for her and persuaded her to come with him, then forcibly raped her, prosecutors said.

The following day, Johnson took the girl to an alley in Manhattan where multiple men raped her — including one who paid Johnson afterward, prosecutors said.

Johnson then took the girl back to Penn Station — where Amtrak police officers intervened after recognizing her from a missing persons flyer, authorities said. Johnson left, but was later arrested following an investigation by the NYPD and D.A.'s office, prosecutors said.

"Unfortunately, while the allegations in this case are utterly disturbing, it is by no means unique," Bragg said in a statement. "Far from the common misconception of sex trafficking – where young women are kidnapped in foreign countries and transported across borders – sex trafficking is happening right in our backyard.

"Again and again, we see traffickers target runaway children in our busiest transit hubs and use various forms of coercion to force them to perform commercial sexual acts," he added.

Johnson faces four felony charges: sex trafficking of a child, first- and second-degree rape, and a criminal sexual act in the second degree, court records show.