PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — Authorities say a Pembroke Park police officer found a 15-year-old girl missing from Palm Beach County in early March, sparking an investigation that would lead detectives to discover she was a victim of child sex trafficking ― and that a Hollywood man was her self-proclaimed “pimp.”
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, that man was Ritchie Saincelaire ― and he was more than twice the victim’s age.
Authorities took Saincelaire, 38, into custody on three felony charges on Thursday.
According to a BSO arrest warrant obtained by Local 10 News on Tuesday, the Pembroke Park police officer found the girl near the Marathon gas station at 5551 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. on March 4.
Authorities said she told the officer she was missing and two BSO deputies came to assist.
A “foul odor” led deputies to conclude that it was “apparent” that “she had not bathed in quite some time” and the girl was wearing a “dirty and disheveled” leopard print dress with no underwear.
Deputies said the girl claimed to live with her 28-year-old “boyfriend,” whose name was redacted from the warrant, and said she worked for “Starbucks” and turned her paychecks over to “Ritchie.”
But deputies suspected she was a victim of human trafficking.
Authorities said the girl ― and three others ― ran away from a Palm Beach County group home in January.
According to the warrant, she told detectives that she began “working” for Saincelaire “by dancing and engaging in sex acts for money at the Polo Club,” an establishment located across from the Marathon station at 5590 W Hallandale Beach Blvd. in Pembroke Park, and “by walking streets in North Miami Beach to engage in prostitution.”
She was expected to make $1,000 a night, or would be accused of being lazy and “hit,” deputies said.
Saincelaire, a native of France born in Paris, took all her money, housed her and “was aware (she) was a runaway juvenile,” the warrant states.
According to the warrant, Saincelaire was saved in the girl’s cellphone as “F--- Me” and “had (been) asked to send naked photos of herself to him.”
In the warrant, deputies pointed out what they said was Saincelaire’s first text: “I’m your pimp now lol.”
Authorities said they served a warrant on Saincelaire’s home on North 56th Avenue in May. Deputies said he denied trafficking the girl, who he knew to be 15, and claimed he was “merely helping” her.
Deputies said test results obtained in June revealed the girl had been sexually assaulted by another man soon before she was found and tested positive for a host of drugs, including methamphetamines and cocaine metabolites.
According to investigators, the girl said Saincelaire had “provided her cannabis, alcohol and a Tylenol” and “passed out,” not recalling anything further.
Deputies said Saincelaire had texted her “Ewwww” afterwards, which investigators believed “was in response to discovering (the other man) and (the victim) had engaged in sexual intercourse.”
All of this, authorities said, was evidence to arrest Saincelaire on charges of sex trafficking of a minor, deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution and unlawful use of a communications device.
As of Monday, Saincelaire was being held without bond in the BSO Main Jail.
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