From www.ajc.com (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Atlanta/South Metro community page
The 16-year-old was excited she was going to get a glimpse of Atlanta’s underground sex industry, and she had a profitable career as a prostitute in her sights.
But while she may have seemed old beyond her years when she testified in Fulton County Superior Court Thursday — and when she performed a sex act for more than 100 leering eyes — she was so young she had to lie to her parents to get out of their Spalding County house overnight.
The teenager, the key prosecution witness, saw her “escort service” career ended before it could take off in July when Atlanta police raided Club Zinc, a nondescript private club where a promoter allegedly put on one of his sex shows for patrons who paid $25 each.
Her testimony, however, may have undercut the prosecution’s case in the ongoing trial against a man and a woman charged with pimping and enticing a minor into indecent and sexual acts, because she admits she lied about her age and she never became a prostitute.
The alleged main sex-show actress, 30-year-old Amanda Jones, and the alleged organizer, 26-year-old Jason Chadwick Ford, are on trial on sex charges involving the show.
Before the show, the girl said, she could tell Jones — or “Shine” as she knew her — was jittery, and the 16-year-old sought to soothe the older woman’s nerves.
“She was really nervous about it . . . because she said she had never done it in public before,” said the poised teen, clad in conservative gray slacks, a black turtleneck and a shiny silver cross, her hair pulled back primly. “I told her there was nothing to be nervous about. . . . She asked me if I would help her participate in it. I kind of knew what she meant.”
The girl said she and Jones performed a sex act onstage. Then she left the stage, and Jones started having sex with about 10 men, the teenager testified.
The Atlanta city solicitor’s office dismissed charges against most of the 115 people arrested at Club Zinc. District Attorney Paul Howard, however, brought felony indictments involving the 16-year-old’s participation against several people, including the two on trial now.
The teen said she had told her parents she was staying overnight with a friend, but actually planned to make the show and her first escort “date” the next day. She portrayed herself as a rebellious teenager who was already on probation for taking her parents’ car without permission and stealing their money.
She said she met Ford for the first time a few weeks before the Club Zinc show and they became fast but platonic friends. They were “open” with each other about sex, she said, because they quickly felt comfortable together.
Ford was recruiting her for an “escort” business he wanted to start, telling her she could make $300 an hour, she said.
She found the money enticing. She said Ford had set up a date for her for the night after the show, involving a man who would pay her $1,000, but her arrest prevented the engagement. She said Ford had given her about $300 a couple of hours before the show, but she said the money wasn’t for the lesbian act.
Prosecutors could not charge statutory rape in the case because the 16-year-old is legally old enough to consent to sexual relations.
The defendants, however, can be charged with enticing a minor for indecent purposes, provided they knew the girl to be under 18. And they are charged with pimping because — the girl’s testimony notwithstanding — Prosecutor Gayle Abramson contends the $300 was for the Club Zinc sexual act.
The girl testified Ford knew she was 16, but she insisted she lied to Jones and everybody else at the club about her age at Ford’s instruction.
This is the man that Atlanta’s Creative Loafing painted as a first amendment freedom fighter even after I told them in an interview that Mr. Ford had knowledge of this girls age, they didn’t run that part of my interview. I used to be somewhat of an aquaitance of Mr Ford but when I learned of his penchant for girls under the age of 18 I cut all ties to him. If found guilty this little fuck deserves deserves to become the toy of his cell block.
