BOSTON, Feb. 19, 2014—Less than two weeks after winning the state’s first human trafficking convictions, Suffolk prosecutors arraigned another man for exploiting a young teen through prostitution, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

TYRONE BATTLE (D.O.B. 9/19/80) of Mattapan was arraigned in Dorchester Municipal Court today on charges of aggravated rape and trafficking a person for sexual servitude. Both offenses carry up to life in prison on conviction; the latter carries a minimum of five years in prison.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Callahan, chief of Conley’s staff in Dorchester, recommended that he be held on $500,000 cash bail and, if he posts that amount, that he wear a GPS tracking device and stay away from the victim.  Callahan further recommended that Battle’s open bail on a pending threats case out of the Boston Municipal Court be revoked. Judge Thomas Kaplanes imposed $75,000 bail, imposed the stay away, and revoked Battle’s open bail.

Battle has two prior gun convictions, Callahan said, one in Suffolk County from 1999, for which he served a year behind bars and on in federal court for which he is still on probation. Federal authorities obtained a detainer holding him for violating that probation, meaning he will be held even if he posts bail in the new case and the revocation order on his other open case expires.

“This case involves a runaway whom we believe was coerced into prostitution at the age of 14,” Conley said. “Sadly, it’s not an exception to the rule. It’s an illustration of the rule: the average age of entry into the sex trade is the young teens. This is not a victimless crime.”

Battle was arrested yesterday amid an ongoing investigation by the Boston Police Human Trafficking Unit and the DA’s Child Protection Unit. That investigation began when the victim, now 17, recently disclosed to a law enforcement official that Battle had for years been selling her body through advertisements on web sites that promote prostitution. Battle is additionally charged with physically abusing and sexually assaulting the girl during that time as well.

Beginning in 2004, Conley implemented a policy of treating youth exploited through prostitution as victims of crime rather than offenders. In 2012, that voluntary “safe harbor” policy was mandated statewide as part of Massachusetts’ human trafficking statute, to which Conley contributed key language. As a result, mechanisms were already in place to connect the victim with emergency shelter, services, and treatment.

The victim disclosed that she had run away from home at the age of 14 and that Battle had first approached her in a bus station, pretending to be a friend and providing her with shelter. Over time, however, he became violent and began orchestrating “dates” between her and men responding to ads he allegedly placed online. Suffolk prosecutors issued an administrative subpoena to a web site that promotes prostitution. They quickly turned up ads corroborating her statement. Evidence also suggests that Battle transported the victim to engage in sexual acitivty with men in Malden, Revere, and Saugus as well as locations in Boston.

On Feb. 10, TYSHAUN McGHEE (D.O.B. 10/10/80) and SIDNEY McGEE (D.O.B. 2/11/84) were sentenced to 15 and 12 years in state prison respectively after Conley’s office proved that they recruited drug-dependent women and kept the money that men paid them for sexual activity the defendants orchestrated. Their convictions are believed to be the first under Massachusetts’ human trafficking statute.

Battle was represented by attorney John Hayes. He will return to court on March 18.

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