A man arrested after allegedly luring women to Atlanta and forcing them into sexual servitude was accused — but never indicted — of doing the same thing a decade ago in New Jersey, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Police arrested Emmett Murphy at his million-dollar high-rise condominium in Midtown Atlanta the day before the Super Bowl on Feb. 2, AJC.com previously reported. He faces multiple charges, including trafficking of persons for labor servitude and trafficking of persons for sexual servitude.
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But Murphy’s former neighbor in New Jersey wondered why the man wasn’t investigated 10 years ago, Channel 2 reported.
Dante Sterling, who lives in East Orange, N.J., told the news station that a decade ago, a badly beaten woman frantically knocked on his door.
“Her lip was split,” he said. “Her face was swollen and bruised.”
The woman told Sterling she was beaten, dragged into the basement of Murphy’s home and secured to a pole, Channel 2 reported. According to a police report, she escaped when the woman watching her left the room, the news station said.
Police arrested and charged Murphy in connection with that case, but a grand jury never indicted him, according to Channel 2.
That could have been because the victim didn’t testify.
“It’s frequent, a frequent situation that they simply will not or have trouble coming back and testifying against that person,” GBI Director Vic Reynolds told Channel 2.
Police are still investigating the Atlanta case.
They previously told Channel 2 that a 19-year-old woman from New Jersey said she met Murphy on social media. She told officers the two talked for about six months and Murphy repeatedly asked her to come to Atlanta to be in a music video.
The woman said she eventually agreed when the suspect offered her $3,000, police said.
She told police she arrived in Atlanta around 5 p.m. the night before Super Bowl LIII. As soon as she arrived at the suspect’s condo on the 38th floor of The Atlantic, she said he told her she’d be dancing naked at a strip club named Follies and selling her body for money. She said the suspect also told her that she’d be giving him all the money.
The woman told investigators she met another woman inside the condo, who told her the suspect would beat her if she didn’t listen to him.
In an exclusive interview, attorney Mohammed Luwemba told Channel 2 the allegations against Murphy are not true and said his client “can’t believe that he’s been victimized this way by the judicial system.”
Murphy was booked into the Fulton County Jail. He was released March 13 after posting a $50,000 bond.
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