A Long Island man has pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and prostitution charges after admitting that for four years he operated a brothel out of his parents’ basement, where women were plied with crack cocaine and heroin.
Raymond Rodio III, 48, from Sound Beach, New York, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts of sex trafficking, criminal sale of a controlled substance and promoting prostitution.
Rodio is expected to be sentenced to more than nine years in prison, followed by five years of post-release supervision, when he goes before a judge on March 9, reported Patch.com. He also will be required to register as a sex offender.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, in August 2018, police pulled over Rodio during a routine traffic stop and discovered a suspected victim of human trafficking in his car.
A subsequent investigation uncovered that the woman had been forced into prostitution by Rodio in the spring of 2018.
Further investigation by the Suffolk Police Human Trafficking Investigations Unit and the District Attorney’s Office’s Human Trafficking Team revealed that Rodio was trafficking women out of the basement of his parents’ home on Lower Rocky Point Road in Sound Beach since December 2014.
Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini said Rodio used social media to lure some 22 women in their 20s, got them addicted to heroin and crack cocaine by initially offering them the drugs free of charge, and then forced them to have sex for money.
If the women refused to comply, Rodio withheld drugs from them, or threatened them with violence.
Acting as the women’s pimp, Rodio advertised their services on websites like Backpage.com and Craigslist.com, kept much or all of the women’s earnings for himself, and used the money to support his own crack cocaine habit.
According to officials, the women were locked for extended periods of time in Rodio’s makeshift sex dungeon in the basement, which did not have a shower or a toilet, and forced to relieve themselves in a bucket.
Video shot by News 12 Long Island inside the cellar shows a bed covered with a colorful duvet, several leather cushions and decorative animal skins hanging on the wall.
Prosecutors say Rodio’s parents, both aged 74, likely were not aware of what was going on in their home.
Rodio III, who has a son and a daughter of his own, in November 2015 appeared on Suffolk County’s Non-Paying Parents List
‘The door to the basement has an exterior lock to which Rodio had the only key,’ a press release from the district attorney’s office stated. ‘In addition to the house, Rodio also allegedly forced the victims to perform prostitution at various motels throughout Suffolk County.’
Rodio’s mother, Nancy Rodio, denied that her son had used her basement as a brothel.
‘There was nothing going on in my house,’ she said.
Rodio’s father, Raymond Rodio Jr, said his son has battled drug addiction for many years. The elder Rodio said he tried to get his son help, but his efforts failed.
Rodio III has a son and a daughter of his own. In November 2015, his name appeared on Suffolk County’s Non-Paying Parents List, revealing that he owed more than $50,000 in child support payments.
