Man accused of pimping out 14-year-old girl

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UPDATE: April 1, 2013 - MEMPHIS, TN
5 more arrested in alleged trafficking of teen

Five more people have been indicted in an alleged child sex-trafficking conspiracy involving a 14-year-old girl who was forced to perform sex for money after being advertised online.

The Commercial Appeal reported Friday the five allegedly conspired with 32-year-old Anthony Grandberry of Memphis, who was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges in January.

The new, expanded indictment also names as defendants 32-year-old Orreco Lyons; 43-year-old Keith Gibson; 28-year-old Vivian Briggs; 37-year-old Tamara Ramsey; and 32-year-old Falisha Edwards.

Gibson is from Union City, while the others are from Memphis.

The federal indictment says that in December, Lyons gave the girl to Grandberry as partial payment for an unrelated matter. Grandberry then paid to post an advertisement for prostitution to Backpage.com, including the girl's photo and Grandberry's phone number.

January 7, 2013

A Memphis man is behind bars and accused of using a 14-year-old girl for prostitution.

Orreco Lyons reportedly picked the teen up on her first day of school in September.

Sex crimes investigators say Lyons sold her sexual services for $100 on at least 20 separate occasions since then.

Shortly before his arrest, police say Lyons typed up a Facebook post boasting about giving away the drug-free teenage prostitute to a pimp partner.

"This trafficker can commit this crime against this 14-year-old girl because he's not afraid to do it," said Ryan Dalton, Operation Broken Silence.

Operation Broken Silence is an organization that fights human trafficking in the Bluff City.

"A lot of people don't believe that it happens here. They think it happens in Thailand, Asia, Eastern Europe, but it happens right here in our own backyard," said Dalton. "The moment we hit the tipping point to make traffickers afraid to do this to children is a great victory for our city and for abolitionists."

Lyons' bond was set at $100,000. He is due back in court next week.