Over the weekend, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced that Freddie Rice, 34, was found guilty in a jury trial of Sex Trafficking. The Bay Shore resident used narcotics and financial coercion to lure victims into engaging in sexual acts with third parties.
“Today, justice was served,” said Tierney. “Freddie Rice’s crimes were calculated, predatory, and devastating to his victims.”
Evidence at trial established that, between August 2019 and December 2023, Rice exploited the addictions of several women. As a means of control, he would withhold substances such as heroin and crack cocaine that he knew the women were dependent upon, and require that they perform sex acts in exchange for the drugs.
He profited by directing the women to respond to buyers and surrender the earnings from the fees they were ordered to charge. If they kept any of the money, Rice would punish them by continuing to withhold their drug “payments.”
Rice told his victims that they were indebted to him and therefore must work to absolve their “debts.” However, no matter how much money they brought in, discussions of deduction were never held.
Amid the agonizing fear of withdrawal symptoms, this kept the women resigned to the shackles of prostitutional captivity.
Rice was convicted on Friday, October 24th, of two counts of Sex Trafficking, Class B felonies, and one count of Promoting Prostitution in the Third Degree, a Class D felony, and is awaiting sentencing on separate, unrelated charges for controlled substance possession.
He is due back in court on November 25th, faces up to 50 years to life in prison, and will be certified as a sex offender.
In closing, Tierney advised: “My office encourages anyone who is a victim of sex trafficking to call 911 or the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office Human Trafficking Tipline at (631) 852-2950.”