Prosecutors to Jurors: He Forced 23-Year-Old into Prostitution. Find Him Guilty

By Marcus Ayala

 

In a case at Queens County Court on Thursday, it is alleged that a man named Correy Hannah, 36, forced a young woman, 23, into prostitution.

The defendant is being charged with kidnapping and sex trafficking. It all allegedly started when the victim was 20 years of age and trying to get her life together.

She was homeless from a small town in Oregon when she moved to California and eventually ended up in New York City. She had a child from a previous violent relationship and was trying to survive.

Assistant District Attorney Lawrence explained how the victim was trying to date again and her date with Hannah turned into a “date from hell.” The relationship lasted from March 8, 2015, to June of that year.

The victim was living in a shelter with her son and Hannah took advantage of her, prosecutors say. He stole her possessions in an effort to trap her and it worked. She had no form of identification and no money. She was then locked in his basement.

When asked for her belongings to be returned, the defendant allegedly said, “You’re not getting your stuff back.” He then allegedly forced her to have sex with one of his friends. She is said to have complied in an effort to get her belongings back and escape the defendant.

It didn’t work. He took her compliance to be a green light to use her as a prostitute and make money. He is alleged to have put ads on a notorious escort website named “Backpages.”

The defendant decided she had had enough and insisted that she be given her money back. She was then punched while in a cab going along Queens Blvd., prosecutors say.

She was given an order of protection against him. From March 13 to Sept. 15 of 2015 Hannah was not supposed to have any contact with the defendant.

But in April, the defendant allegedly found and physically assaulted the victim, choking her until she consented to work for him again. In June of 2015 the victim was arrested for possessing drugs that prosecutors now say were given to her by Hannah.

The victim was sent to jail.

The first witness called was Christopher Burton who is an officer from the 107th precinct in Queens and has seven years as a highway safety officer. He was near the incident of the taxi cab attack on Queens Blvd.

Burton described how Anderson was bleeding from the face and Hannah didn’t have a scratch on him. “I went to Jamaica hospital with [the victim] and she was still very hysterical and in pain, bleeding from the face,” the officer said. After she left Jamaica hospital, according to Burton, authorities lost contact with her.

The next witness was Detective Robert Schuller. He said the victim indicated that she had been kidnapped. The last witness of the day was Detective David Mills, who went over domestic abuse reports from 2015 involving Hannah.

On Feb.3 of last year, Hannah aas arrested by Mills and his partner in plain clothes near Hannah’s house.

The case, being held before Judge Kenneth C. Holder, is set to continue on Monday.