An Orlando man faces several felony charges after authorities say he kept an underage girl as a prostitute against her will and beat her.
The investigation into Tyquarius Jevonte Lebby, 24, began Dec. 8 after the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation received a tip that an underage girl was being held against her will at an Orange Blossom Trail motel, according to court documents. Authorities found explicit pictures of the girl on the internet.
Agents posed undercover as clients and went to a room at the Rodeway Inn on the 6100 block of South Orange Blossom Trail. A girl with a bruise on her eye answered the door, police said.
Meanwhile, agents noticed a man later identified as Lebby leaving a different room at the same motel. Pimps often rent rooms nearby to control the prostitutes, an agent wrote in an arrest report.
Lebby was detained while investigators questioned the girl, who said she ran away from her mother’s house and posted advertisements of herself on the web. She told authorities that she did not get to keep any of the money she earned and was only compensated with food and shelter, documents show.
After another prostitute was found to be having sex with customers for free, Lebby beat the prostitute and the girl, slapping her five times with the front and back of his hand and leaving the bruise on her eye, the girl told authorities.
The day Lebby slapped the girl, he told her, “You’re locked in now, because I can beat your [expletive]. Now I can’t let go of you,” according to charging documents.
The juvenile told authorities that when she was with Lebby, she felt like she could not leave.
Lebby was arrested Dec. 9 on charges of human trafficking, false imprisonment, unlawful sexual activity with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He’s being held without bond in the Orange County Jail.