Thaindian News

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND (BNO NEWS) – An Indiana couple on Wednesday was charged with transporting an individual across state lines to engage in prostitution, prosecutors said.

According to the Indictment, Nathan G. Pope and Jan M. Wales, both of Indianapolis, were engaged in a conspiracy to bring two women from Indiana to the East Coast to engage in prostitution. The indictment alleges that Pope told a person identified in the indictment as S.M. that she worked for and belong to him and that he would hurt her family if she didn’t engage in acts of prostitution for his and Wales’ benefit.

In late December, Wales allegedly told S.M. that she and another woman would travel with Pope from Indiana to East Coast cities to engage in prostitution. At one point, while Pope was driving the two women, S.M. tried to leave the car at a location in Ohio. Pope allegedly warned her, “you can’t run away from me, I know where you live,” and, “you don’t know me, you don’t know what I’m capable of.”

The indictment alleges that, in a hotel room in Warwick in December, S.M. engaged in an act of prostitution that Pope and Wales had arranged. Afterward, S.M. gave Pope $200 of the $250 that she had just been paid. While at the Warwick hotel, Pope allegedly punched S.M. in the face twice.

Following an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Warwick Police, the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, and other agencies, agents arrested Pope in December on a federal complaint. Charges brought against another woman in that complaint were dismissed today.

The indictment charges Pope, 47, who is also known as “Rah Rah,” and Wales, 44, also known as “Big Mama,” with conspiracy and transporting an individual in interstate commerce for the purposes of prostitution.

In the event of a conviction, the maximum penalty for transporting a person interstate for prostitution would be ten years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for conspiracy is five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.