THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, September 25, 2013 r
Page A-9
Pimp, an aspiring In Montgomery, Perry pitches Texas to rapper, ordered to Maryland business, government leaders prison for 36 years Two companies mull move, but neither is from Free State n
Co-defendant has pleaded guilty, awaits sentencing in case with Montgomery County connections n
BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER
Jeremy “Jerms Black” Naughton was living it up in 2012. The aspiring rapper from Brooklyn had released a single, “Da Paper,” that received positive press, and he was posting photos of himself on Facebook with a bevy of body-painted or scantily clad women. That came to an abrupt end this year, after a federal jury convicted him in May of sex trafficking, transporting individuals to engage in prostitution and using a gun during the conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Some of the offenses occurred in Montgomery County. On Friday, a federal judge sentenced Naughton to 36 years in prison. He also will be on probation for five years, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland detailing the sentence. “This case illustrates that sex trafficking is a very violent and unpleasant business,” U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in an interview with The Gazette. The trafficking took place over the course of 2009 and 2010, when Naughton and Charles Anderson, or “Chuck Corners,” abused and trafficked women, according to the prosecutor’s statement. They targeted women who did not have pimps, the statement said. After meeting the women under the guise that they were prospective johns or pimps, Naughton or Anderson threatened them with handguns and forced the women to work for them. The two men took the women’s IDs, cellphones and computers so they couldn’t communicate, according to the statement. Naughton and Anderson targeted eight women, according to Naughton’s indictment. The men would assault the women, sexually abuse them and use other forms of intimidation to coerce them into complying with Naughton’s and Anderson’s demands. “He is a very dangerous person. He was extremely violent with his prostitutes,” Rosenstein
said of Naughton. Naughton drove from New York to Maryland to kidnap women and take them back to Brooklyn to work as prostitutes, according to an indictment. He also brought women from New York to Maryland to prostitute them here, according to prosecutors. Naughton’s methods were extreme. In one case, he choked a woman and forced her to perform oral sex. In another case, he snapped the neck of the dog that one of the women owned. He tried to hit an Oxon Hill woman with his car in 2009, according to his indictment. Later that year, he barged into a Rockville hotel room, hitting another woman in the face and torso, and demanded she work for him. In 2010, Naughton forced a woman from a hotel room in Silver Spring, took her with him at the Brooklyn apartment and sexually abused her before attempting to prostitute her from a hotel on Long Island in New York. The assaults took place in both New York and Maryland, according to prosecutors. Anderson, 26, who also goes by “Yowzers,” pleaded guilty this year. He has a sentencing date scheduled for next month. Michael Citaramanis, Naughton’s public defender, could not be reached. Gary Proctor, who represents Anderson, did not answer phone calls. “I just want to create better music for myself and for the fans ...,” Naughton said in an interview with Rago Magazine in 2010. “My motivation is growth, creativity, and being artistic.” “He should be in prison well into 60s under his sentence,” Rosenstein said. sjbsmith@gazette.net
POLICE BLOTTER The following is a summary of incidents in the Rockville area to which Montgomery County and/or Rockville city police responded recently. The words “arrested” and “charged” do not imply guilt. This information was provided by the county and Rockville city police media services office.
1ST DISTRICT
Armed robbery • On Sept. 9 at 8:21 a.m. in the 6000 block of California Circle, Rockville. The subject threatened the victim with a weapon and took property.
Auto theft • Between 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3 and 7 a.m. Sept. 4 at Fishers Lumber, 525 E. Gude Drive, Rockville. No further information provided. • Between Sept. 6 and Sept. 9 in the 100 block of West Gude Drive, Rockville. No further information provided.
Residential burglary • 10200 block of Shining Willow Drive, Rockville, at 10 p.m. Sept. 9. Unknown entry, took nothing.
Sexual assault • On Sept. 5 between 7 and 8 p.m. at Monument Park, 550 Maryland Ave., Rockville. The subject is known to the victim.
1895352
BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
Texas Gov. Rick Perry might have succeeded in his trip to Maryland to lure businesses to his home state, but so far, the only businesses that might move aren’t from Maryland. One is based in Virginia, and the other is in Colorado. Perry, a Republican who ran for president in 2012, met with about 50 business and government representatives Sept. 18 at Morton’s in Bethesda in a wellpublicized effort to encourage Maryland businesses to leave the state, and its taxes, and head to Texas. “Texas is the fastest growing state in jobs,” Perry said on Sept. 18 before a substantial group of broadcast and print reporters outside Morton’s, following his closed-door meeting inside. “Our two states are going in opposite directions.” Perry said it was “premature” to announce that any Maryland businesses are moving to Texas. However, Janice Grenadier, founder of My Pillow Pack of Alexandria, Va. — which provides a handy, stylish way to carry pillows like a backpack — said she has tried for three years to obtain funding and support in the Washington, D.C., area without luck. “I’ve already received more support from these Texas officials here today than I have the past three years,” she said. Joe Wagner, sales manager for Aurora, Colo., alternative energy business Zeus Power Systems, said he and others want to start a solar panel firm in Maryland, but the process “hasn’t been easy.” “We are looking into mov-
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks to the media outside the Bethesda Hyatt after a lunch meeting with Maryland business representatives at Morton’s, a restaurant inside the Hyatt Hotel. ing,” said Wagner, who attended the Bethesda meeting. “I’m impressed with Colorado, but it’s even getting tougher to run a business there,” he said. “There are always more taxes and red tape.” Other business executives said they would keep their enterprises in Maryland. Perry and Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who is eyeing a 2016 White House run, have dueled in the past week or so over Maryland’s tax climate and other matters. Perry is running ads on local radio and television stations trying to lure Maryland businesses to Texas. Perry said on Sept. 18 that he had “no idea” what he would do in 2016. The governors debated that day on CNN’s “Crossfire” program. Earlier, Perry also toured the Beretta USA gun factory in Accokeek; the company has considered moving from the state. O’Malley disputed Perry’s job-growth claim during the
debate and in printed material. He said Maryland’s economy is better designed to help raise middle-income workers than Texas, which ranks high in poverty and low in residents with health insurance. O’Malley also said Maryland has fared well in studies such as one by the Anderson Economic Group that showed Maryland businesses had the seventh-lowest local and state tax burden in 2011 — a look at taxes such as corporate income, sales and property — while Texas ranked 17th. Michael Binko, president and CEO of kloudtrack, a hightech company with offices in Rockville and Annapolis, said taxes should not be the defining issue for where a business is based. “The quality of schools and the work force, as well as venture funding programs, are two other important considerations,” said Binko, co-chair of entrepreneurial advocacy group Startup Maryland. He
and others listened to Perry’s remarks outside Morton’s. While Texas has lured a few businesses from Maryland, aided by a substantial incentive program, Maryland has attracted a good number of out-of-state companies, said Julie Lenzer Kirk, director of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship and co-chair of Startup Maryland. “Both states have a lot to offer businesses,” said Kirk, who grew Applied Creative Technologies to multimillions in revenues before selling the software assets to a business partner. Diana Waterman, Maryland’s Republican Party chairwoman, who also attended the Bethesda meeting, said Perry shined some important light on tax issues in the state. “We’d prefer that businesses stay here and help us elect more Republicans to office,” she said. kshay@gazette.net