Mom needed cash, so she pimped 17-year-old daughter to the landlord, Georgia cops say

A cash-strapped mom is facing human trafficking accusations after detectives said they discovered she was pimping out her teenage daughter to a 67-year-old man, according to police in south Georgia.

The unsavory arrangement came to light Sunday, Jan. 12, when a man, identified as 67-year-old Cleo Spence, called the Albany Police Department to have the mom and her children evicted from his home on East Broad Avenue, officials said.

“They were staying (at the home) at due to their state of impoverishment,” police said.

“(The mom) informed officers that she found messages in her 17-year-old daughter’s phone that suggested Spence sexually assaulted her.”

An interview with the teenage girl revealed she had been in a sexual relationship with the older man since August, but it was at the urging of her mother, police said.

“He was paying her to be sexual,” police said. “Investigators were able to determine that the 17-year-old’s mother ... had been instructing her be sexual with Spence for money.”

The man was arrested and charged with “prostitution, grooming, aggravated sodomy, solicitation of sodomy, sexual battery and human trafficking,” police said.

The girl’s mother was also arrested and charged with pimping and human trafficking, police said. McClatchy News is not naming her to protect the identity of her children.

Investigators did not provide details on the fate of the 17-year-old girl and her siblings.

Albany is about a 180-mile drive south from Atlanta.

This story was originally published January 14, 2025 at 6:31 AM with the headline "Mom needed cash, so she pimped 17-year-old daughter to the landlord, Georgia cops say."