A Queens creep was hit with rape and sex trafficking charges Monday for allegedly assaulting and strangling a 25-year-old sex worker he pimped out over a nearly year-long nightmare, prosecutors said.
Leighton Jennings, 35, was arraigned on a seven-count indictment for the alleged abuse, keeping the victim a virtual prisoner and forcing her to fork over up to $1,000 a day, the Queens District Attorney’s office said.
“This defendant promised to help a young woman and instead subjected her to sex trafficking, months of violence and sexual assault,” DA Melinda Katz said in a statement. “In one incident, she was choked and lost consciousness. I thank the brave victim for coming forward.”
According to prosecutors, Jennings met the woman, a young mom, in July 2024 while she was working as a prostitute and living in a temporary shelter with her baby.
Jennings allegedly offered the victim housing and childcare if she forked over the proceeds from her sex work, and she agreed to turn over anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a day for the accommodations.
But the deal soon turned into a nightmare, with Jennings allegedly forcing her to move into an apartment at the Pomonok Houses public housing complex in Flushing with him and a disabled adult, the DA said.
He allegedly also refused to allow her baby to lived with them, and regularly beat her — culminating with the violent strangling incident on May 31, which prompted the victim to finally file charges against him.
He was arrested on July 11, and was arraigned on the felony indictment on Monday.
But it wasn’t his first arrest: Jennings was just 24 when he was charged with slugging openly gay journalist Randy Gener in Manhattan on Jan. 17, 2014 — a case that was later sealed.
Gener allegedly bumped into Jennings’ then-girlfriend on 34th Street and the two got into an argument that ended with violence, authorities said at the time. The outcome of the case is not known.
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