BOSTON, June 1, 2016—A Dorchester man will spend up to the next decade in prison after he admitted to running a human trafficking operation in which he targeted vulnerable women and used drugs, threats, and violence to control them, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

ANTHONY DEW (D.O.B. 8/12/82) today pleaded guilty to human trafficking, assault and battery, distribution of a Class A substance, and distribution of a Class B substance.  Superior Court Judge Linda Giles sentenced Dew to eight to 10 years in state prison followed by seven years of probation.

“Cases like this one are the reason we fought so hard to bring a human trafficking statute to Massachusetts,” Conley said.

Had the case proceeded to trial, Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Keeley, chief of the DA’s Human Trafficking Unit, would have introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Dew ran a human trafficking operation out of two apartments on Adams and Maxwell streets in Dorchester during 2014 and January of 2015.  During that time, he prostituted five women, collected the proceeds of their prostitution activity, and provided each with drugs as payment – specifically heroin and crack cocaine.  He also regularly sold drugs to other individuals.

The evidence would have proved that Dew threatened each of the victims.  He also kicked one woman with a shod foot, held a knife to her throat, and hit her against the head.

During the course of an investigation, Boston Police detectives discovered Dew’s name on many prostitution ads posted on backpage.com.  A search warrant executed at Dew’s Maxwell Street apartment on Jan. 15, 2015, revealed items including two dozen cell phones, tablets, a surveillance system, police scanner, records Dew kept of his prostitution business, and four lines of heroin set up on a kitchen table.  Dew, who was present at the time, was placed under arrest.

Before Dew’s sentence was imposed, one of women he exploited delivered a victim impact statement to the court.

“[These crimes] took a piece of my identity, my dignity, my pride, and my self-worth.  I felt belittled and disgraced.  This is a piece of my life that I can never get back…. I came here to stand up and say that I am not a victim anymore but a survivor.  I am here for other women out there like me who have been exploited by people like him.  I am no longer a victim—of the drug or of him,” one of Dew’s victim’s said in court.

Prosecutors also read statements in court prepared by two of Dew’s victims, including the woman he physically assaulted and threatened with a knife.

“I was scared for my life that night not knowing whether I would be seriously hurt or even live through the events,” the victim wrote.  “Also I feel violated in a way that he took something from me that only I should have had the power to give…. I hope that if not now, someday in the future he can see how his actions have violated and affected me and the emotional scars that I will carry with me.”

Kerry Kolditz was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.  Dew was represented by Richard Doyle.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.