March 1, 2016 Staff Report
Two Queens men—including one from Woodside—pleaded guilty to felony charges in connection with the sex trafficking of a 14-year-old girl who they forced to work as a prostitute.
Lindsay Archibald, 33, of Woodside, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and is expected to face between three and nine years in prison, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Archibald’s accomplice Stephen Garrison, 27, of Jamaica, pleaded guilty to the promotion of prostitution in the second degree with the understanding that he will receive between three and six years in prison.
A third defendant previously pleaded guilty in the case. All of the defendants will serve State prison time, Brown said.
The girl ran away from home in September 2013 and was later introduced to Archibald, Garrison and the third defendant, Quanesha Hunte, then 23, of Jamaica.
Archibald asked the girl what pimp she was going to work for as a prostitute. When the victim refused to make a decision, the three defendants threatened her and claimed that she owed them money and that she had to pay them back by doing prostitution acts – which she allegedly did inside of a residence on 107th Avenue in Queens.
According to the charges, between Nov. 1, 2013 and Feb. 3, 2014, the victim was kept inside a 107th Avenue dwelling unit against her will by Archibald and Hunte and forced to have sexual intercourse with numerous men in exchange for cash, which she had to turn over to Archibald and Hunte.
On several occasions during that time period, when she asked to leave, Hunte beat and kicked her in the head and stated, “You are not going anywhere.”
In one instance, Archibald is alleged to have stated, “If you ever try to leave, I’ll find you and kill you.”
On two occasions between December 2013 and January 2014, Archibald forced her to have sexual intercourse and oral sex with Garrison to test her out in order to see how well she was performing.
On Feb. 3, 2014, Archibald and Hunte moved the victim out of the 107th Avenue location to Hunte’s Queens residence.
On that day, the victim had the opportunity to use a telephone to call her grandmother and 911 for help. The victim told her grandmother that she was being held against her will inside the location and that there was also a gun there.
When police arrived at Hunte’s residence later that day, they observed the victim run out of the location, crying and upset.
Inside, they observed a Glock handgun sitting inside an open drawer and Hunte and Garrison on the premises. Shortly thereafter, Archibald arrived outside the location.
In executing a court-authorized search warrant on Feb. 4, 2014, police recovered the .45 caliber black Glock 21 handgun.
Hunte, who has been held in jail in lieu of $300,000 bond/$150,000 cash bail since her arrest in February 2014, appeared before Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph Zayas on Feb. 4 and pleaded guilty to second-degree promoting prostitution. Her sentencing is pending.
Archibald is scheduled to be sentenced on March 14, and Garrison’s sentencing is set for March 21.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendants preyed on a vulnerable teenage girl, using her as a commodity to be sold to others for cash, which they then pocketed for themselves. Sex trafficking is a serious and disturbing crime that my office continues to vigorously pursue and successfully prosecute.”
Archibald was also charged in a second case with pimping out several other girls, including a 17-year-old girl, between October 2013 and February 2014. Archibald had his street name, Touch, tattooed on the back of the victim’s neck.
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