NJ Man Was Trafficking Teen Girl On 'Trip' Through Pennsylvania: Cops

PENNSYLVANIA — A New Jersey man was charged with trafficking on Monday after he was caught on the Pennsylvania Turnpike with a teen girl whom he took on a trip "to have sex with men for money," state police said.

Jerome Anthony Oliver, 52, of Bayonne, was driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Cumberland County when Trooper Travis Martin stopped his car, which had temporary Missouri license plates, said Pennsylvania State Police.

Martin found out that one of the passengers, a 17-year-old girl, was missing and endangered in Missouri, police said.

Police searched the car and found sexual lubricants, condoms, sexually explicit clothing, hotel key cards, cellular phones, and cash, they said.

The 17-year-old told troopers that she had been forced to have sex against her will, police said.

After she was brought to police headquarters, two troopers interviewed her and found that that she had met Oliver six months earlier in Kansas City.

She said that at the time, he had sex with her almost daily.

He provided her with marijuana and often had sex with her while she was high or asleep, she told the troopers.

He gave her money, clothing, a phone, and a diamond bracelet, police said.

Then, on April 26, he told her he was taking her on a trip.

“Later during the trip, he informed her that she was going to have sex with men for money," police said. He posted an advertisement online saying he had a 17-year-old available for sex, police said.

Another passenger in the car, an 19-year-old woman, confirmed the account, according to police.

Oliver was charged with both trafficking and with interfering in the custody of a minor.

Cumberland County District Attorney Seán McCormack complimented the officers for recognizing the trafficking situation.

"I sometimes hear people complain about the criminalization of sexual activity ‘between consenting adults,' " he said. "This vulnerable victim was recruited and groomed through the use of drugs, money and jewelry. All for the ultimate purpose to sell her to men in hotel rooms."

He added, "The ‘consenting adults’ narrative is a fiction created by the same men who participate in the buying and selling of these victims.”

Oliver will have a preliminary hearing on May 8 in Magisterial District Court. He's currently being held without bail in Cumberland County jail, police said.

Numerous men have been arrested in Cumberland County as part of an investigation called Operation Impact: Demand, designed to target the driving forces in trafficking, police said.