Philly man charged with sex trafficking 15-year-old girl in New Jersey: cops

A Philadelphia man was charged Thursday with sex trafficking a 15-year-old girl and another woman.

Nieem Johnson, 40, was indicted in New Jersey state court. He faces a slew of charges, including two counts of first-degree human trafficking.

“The allegations in the indictment – holding two victims in a state of involuntary servitude, advertising their availability for sex acts, and engaging in sex acts with a minor — are abhorrent,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a press release.

The case against Johnson began on March 3, when the 15-year-old victim escaped from a hotel in the Trenton suburb of Bordentown, according to police. Cops in Bordentown determined that Johnson had brought the teen girl to the hotel against her will and sold her as a prostitute.

Investigators found online ads offering the 15-year-old girl for sex and connected the ads to Johnson, authorities said.

New Jersey State Police tracked Johnson to an Atlantic City hotel and arrested him there on Aug. 31. During that bust, cops discovered a second victim. The woman was being held against her will in the hotel and pimped out by Johnson, according to police.

Johnson threatened and physically abused that victim, cops said. He is accused of choking her, pushing her against a wall and lifting her off the ground by her neck.

“The two survivors in this case are alleged to have suffered a level of exploitation and abuse that no person should have to endure,” said J. Stephen Ferketic, director of the attorney general’s Division of Criminal Justice.

Investigators believe the human trafficking operation spanned Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Johnson’s last known address was in Philadelphia. A second suspect, Thomas Fulcher, was also arrested and charged as Johnson’s co-defendant.

Johnson was previously accused of sex trafficking a teenager in the Philadelphia area. In 2014, he was charged with selling an 18-year-old woman for sex in northeast Philadelphia, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was eventually arrested in that case at a Red Roof Inn in Mount Laurel, N.J., where another victim was also found.