WASHINGTON — A former D.C. police officer has been indicted by a grand jury on charges involving sex trafficking of underage girls.
Chukwuemeka Ekwonna of Glenn Dale, Maryland, was arrested in April and stripped of his police powers after being accused of paying a teenage girl for sex, then using his gun to demand the money back.
The 10-count indictment charges that Ekwonna, 28, was active on the social media site Tagged, where his handle was “E-man aka wateva u want me 2 be.”
He allegedly exchanged 53,000 messages with other Tagged users, including 200 texts with a 14-year-old girl and another 54 messages with a 15-year-old girl in which he offered to pay for sex with the ninth graders.
He’s charged with pointing a gun at the 15-year-old in the back seat of his vehicle, ordering that she return money he paid her for sex in January.
The charges — which include sex trafficking of minors and enticement of minors to engage in prostitution — carry the possibility of a minimum 10-year prison sentence and a maximum of life in prison.
The lawyer cited in court documents as representing Ekwonna did not return a call requesting comment.
The former police officer is scheduled to appear in federal court in Baltimore on Friday.
