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Walk the lie
"I did everything for the least bit of nothing ... I handled everything wrong."
By Angela Valdez
Page 2 of 5
The adventure ended when relations soured with her host, who kicked her out and called police. Lynette soon found herself in a nonsecure facility for teens called Act Together, waiting for authorities to figure out how to ship her back home. She made the most obvious decision and jumped out the window to freedom.
Walking down an unfamiliar street, she heard a man call out from a passing car. He asked if she needed assistance. When she said no, he started urging her to get in. His come-ons became commands. He said, "You are going to get in this car or I will make you get in this car," she told police. Lynette said he physically "snatched" her off the street. In the car, she asked what he wanted and told him she was just 16.
"I want you to make money for me," he said, according to police testimony. Then he slapped her in the face. Lynette told police she spat back in his face, and he slapped her again. Simms drove her to a home with a gravel driveway, a place Lynette called a liquor house, where there were prostitutes and booze and gambling. Simms locked her in a room with no windows, and she fell asleep. When Lynette awoke, Simms returned and asked again if she would work for him. This time, she said yes. She told police she began working as a prostitute in North Carolina. Sometime later, she agreed to accompany Simms to D.C., where he thought she could make more money. The whole time, she said, he kept her under watch. He collected all her money and threatened her with violence.
It's not surprising that police believed Lynette's version of events. The evidence corroborated her story. A search of the Thunderbird netted, as Lynette promised, bags of marijuana and a laptop. There were also "ho clothes" (an investigator's words, under oath), condoms, and a tube of lubricating jelly. At the scene, Simms floundered under questioning. Asked how he knew Lynette, he told the officers that she was his cousin. Pressed for more details, he said she was his brother's sister. Wouldn't that make her his sister, too? He said they had different fathers.
In fact, Simms was an only child. But police didn't need that information to know he was lying. A search of the FBI's National Crime Information Center database revealed a missing persons report listing Lynette as a runaway from Pennsylvania. On Craigslist, under "erotic services," police found ads with photos of her and the other women. She swore that Simms had posted the pages.
Investigators made color copies of the ads: nude photos of Lynette posing in hotel rooms, coupled with coded narratives describing her services. One read: "Taking you to ecstasy. Hello, gentlemen, my name is Tara Lin -- I enjoy entertaining men very much, I promise you you'll always want to come back for more because my only objective is pleasing you. I am the special cure for every man's curiosity. Call immediately. Available for in-call and out-call." Another: "This Greek goddess will make you rise. Hello, Gentlemen, come join me in a lovely night filled with heart-throbbing excitement. I love to show my affection in all the right places. If you are ready to be pampered and catered with your utmost fantasies, I am the girl of your dreams. Call me. I'm available days and nights, with at least one hour advance notice."
The price for time with "Tara Lin" was coded too: "125 roses gets you her with a capital E." Lynette told police that meant she'd have oral and vaginal sex for $125.
Lynette and Simms' entry into prostitution reflects new openings in an old business. Craigslist and other online venues for placing ads have made it easier for novices to get into the game, creating new niches for dabbler pimps and freelance prostitutes. D.C. police say former drug dealers are turning to part-time pimping on Craigslist to make easy cash. The online medium also limits the risk of marketing sex with underage girls, whose youth can be more easily disguised on a Web site than on the street. But there are new risks as well. Online pimps are particularly vulnerable to Internet sting operations. And ignorance of a girl's age doesn't equal innocence. In Simms' case, the charge of transporting a minor for the purposes of prostitution hinged on strict liability. He could be found guilty regardless of whether he knew she was 16.
From the moment of his indictment in September 2006, Simms showed an unflagging determination to get himself off the hook. In November, his lawyer (the second of six) filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider his decision to deny bail. Simms made a play for sympathy by calling attention to civic contributions one might not expect from a street-hardened pimp.
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