Aug 26, 2015 2 min read

PITTSBURGH – A Western Pennsylvania man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he was sex trafficking four girls from Ohio who were in his vehicle in February, along with what state police said were 8,000 individual dose bags of heroin.

Richard Middlebrook, 40, of Clairton, entered the plea before a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh after federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment against him and Kiari Nicole Day, 26, of Rankin, another Pittsburgh suburb.

The charges are part of an emphasis on human trafficking begun two years ago by U.S. Attorney David Hickton. Middlebrook and Day are the sixth and seventh people prosecuted under the push.

“There is no such thing as a child prostitute,” Hickton said at a news conference last month announcing a renewed focus on such cases. “These children are victims who cannot give consent to prostitution” and are “survivors of child rape.”

State police stopped Middlebrook in Dauphin County Feb. 17 for having an expired registration and found the girls and the drugs in the car, authorities said.

Middlebrook was charged under a state law that was enhanced last year to increase the penalties for trafficking children, but disappeared while he was free on bond in that case. In the meantime, federal authorities took over the case.

Middlebrook was arrested late Tuesday outside the office of his Pittsburgh attorney, Sally Frick, who told the Associated Press Middlebrook was going there to surrender to authorities. Frick declined to comment on the allegations.

But according to the indictment returned under seal Aug. 11, Middlebrook and Day worked together recruiting the Ohio girls, though the document doesn’t spell out how that was done.

The girls were trafficked in the Pittsburgh area, which is why federal prosecutors moved the case from Central Pennsylvania.

Middlebrook and Day are both charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and four counts each of sex trafficking of a child. Middlebrook alone is charged with bringing the girls across state lines for illegal sexual activity and conspiracy to distribute heroin.

Authorities didn’t say whether drugs were supplied to the alleged child prostitutes or was otherwise linked to the trafficking.

Court records unsealed along with the indictment show Day was arraigned Aug. 13 and is free on bond. Her attorney, John Halley, declined to comment Wednesday.

Middlebrook and Day each face up to life in prison if convicted of all charges.