Man Who Forced Women Into Prostitution At Queens Hotels Indicted: DA

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — A man was indicted on sex trafficking charges after he forced two women into prostitution for six years in several hotels in Queens, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Cleveland Sterling, from Long Island, was charged after he forced two 19-year-old women in Queens to have sex with strangers in exchange for money that he would keep to himself between 2016 and 2022, said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

Sterling, 34, took explicit pictures of the women and posted them online for customers to arrange encounters with them at Jamaica hotels including the Van Wyck Hotel and LeTap Hotel, the district attorney said.

Sterling faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted, and he is scheduled to return to court on March 31, Katz said.

The man from Aracadia Avenue in Uniondale met the first woman in 2016 and forced her to have sex with strangers through 2022. Sterling attacked the victim several times, bruising her face, breaking her teeth, and pushing her down the stairs on one occasion, prosecutors said.

The 34-year-old met the second woman in August 2021, to whom he showed videos of him attacking the first woman as a threat of what would happen to her if she refused to comply with his demands, the district attorney said.

Sterling also made one of the women tattoo his name on his foot, and the other woman to ink his street name, claiming they were his property, Katz said.