Anne Arundel County police have charged a 42-year-old Glen Burnie man with human trafficking and selling the sexual services of a 12-year-old Washington girl who had been reported missing nearly two weeks ago.
Derwin Samuel Smith, who lives in an apartment in the first block of McGuirk Drive in Glen Burnie, was ordered jailed Wednesday in lieu of $100,000 bail to await trial.
Police were involved in the case as part of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force. They said the girl was reported missing May 25 from Washington and was believed to be working as a prostitute. County police said they learned Monday that she was at the Knights Inn on Route 198 near the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Laurel, where she was staying in a room registered for one night to Smith. Acting on a tip, authorities contacted the adolescent girl there. Police retrieved her and arrested Smith when he arrived there about 8 p.m.
Police said the 12-year-old told them she met Smith in Washington, where he picked her up, took her elsewhere and paid her for sex. Then he began taking her from the Washington area to Atlantic City, N.J., to work as a prostitute for him, police said. She told police Smith kept the money she made, police said.
"At one point, she decided she didn't want to do this anymore ," said police spokesman Justin Mulcahy. The girl told Smith that she wanted to go home, "but he held her against her will," police said in a statement. The girl was afraid of Smith because of size — court records say he's 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 218 pounds — his age and her suspicion that he was armed, police said. Mulcahy said the investigation is continuing.
Smith, who court records indicate has lived in various places in the region, faces five charges: three human-trafficking charges and two prostitution charges.
His prior record includes a conviction for drug possession in Montgomery County and trespassing in Howard County.
The task force includes local police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and the Maryland State Police.