FORT WORTH — A 58-year-old man who was arrested last year by police investigating a prostitution ring has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Chang Hyeong Lee, the owner of a southeast Fort Worth convenience store, was arrested in January 2008 after authorities saw several teenage gang members bring the girl to the store to have sex with Lee, officials said.
Tarrant County prosecutor Art Clayton said the girl, now 16, testified this week that she was a runaway who got involved with the gang. After the leaders got her hooked on cocaine, the gang began prostituting her, Clayton said.
Authorities learned about the prostitution ring in August 2008 after they arrested a woman who was going door to door at an east Fort Worth apartment complex, offering sex with a 14-year-old runaway for $50. The woman, Debra Flores Castillo, was placed on eight years of deferred adjudication probation last year.
Castillo’s arrest led to a wider investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Fort Worth police’s major-case, vice and human-trafficking units, Clayton said. They learned that teenage gang members frequently escorted girls to customers, he said.
After receiving a tip that a girl would be brought to a store in the 1200 block of Glen Garden Drive, task force members started watching the store, Clayton said. After seeing a teenage male escort the girl into the store and leave, police arrested Lee, who had been having sex with the girl in a back room of the store, he said.
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