FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2 Charged in Sex Trafficking Arrests Kentucky Woman Recruited & Brought to Miami-Dade

Click here to access the PDF version of this release.

Miami (October 23, 2023) Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and City of Miami Springs Police Chief Armando Guzman announce the arrest of 30-year-old Matthew Daniel Vincent and 23-year-old Deja A Washington after the completion of a Human Trafficking investigation undertaken by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office (SAO) Human Trafficking Task Force. Task Force officers were notified, via a telephone contact on the State Attorney’s Office Human Trafficking Hotline, by Matthew Vincent’s Broward County Probation Officer. The Kentucky victim had communicated with a friend, indicating that she was in a “sex slave situation” and was being trafficked in the generalized Miami area. The friend contacted the Probation Officer who then contacted the SAO hotline. The victim indicated that she was being forced to work in several strip clubs and perform as a prostitute under the alleged direction of Vincent and Washington.

“As we have seen so many times before, traffickers have no problem targeting their victims with colorful promises of money and excitement,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. “Instead, victims lose their humanity as they find themselves reduced to simple money-making machines for those exploitering them. I applaud the work our Human Trafficking Task Force and the Springs Police Department in putting this investigation together and rescuing this woman.”

Matthew Daniel Vincent and Deja A Washington are both being charged with:

• 1 count of Human Trafficking for the Purpose of Commercial Sex Activity (1st Degree Felony)
• 1 count of Deriving Support from the Proceeds of Prostitution (2nd Felony)
• 1 count of Directing Another to a Place of Prostitution (2nd Felony)

Vincent, who is presently on probation in Broward County for Robbery and Aggravated Battery with a Firearm, is also being charged with:

• 1 count of Sexual Battery by Coercion/Threat (1st Degree Felony)

After several unsuccessful attempts to speak with the 21-year-old victim at a Miami Springs hotel, Task Force officers were able to locate and interview her. She indicated that she had been contacted on the phone in Kentucky, told she could work to make money if she agreed to come to Miami and was sent a one-way plane ticket.

Upon arrival in South Florida, she was provided with some clothes and shoes and driven to several strip clubs to audition. Additionally, the woman indicated that she was forced into prostitution activity and told she needed to make at least $1,000 a day. The victim stated that all the money she had made at the clubs and through prostitution was taken by Vincent and Washington.

For media interviews with State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, please call 305-547-0535 to schedule a time.

#####

For further information, please contact Ed Griffith, Public Information Officer, at (305) 547-0535 or EdGriffith@MiamiSAO.com