File photo. A New Hampshire man has been convicted of running a prostitution operation following a trial during which witnesses described how he used their drug addictions to causing them to work as prostitutes for his profit.
A federal jury found year-old Steven Tucker, of Manchester, guilty Friday of using interstate facilities to promote prostitution, maintaining a drug-involved premises and sex trafficking of a minor.
He's scheduled to be sentenced July 2. Prosecutors said Tucker would often front heroin to women and then arrange prostitution "dates" for them. The women were required to give him half of the proceeds and then buy heroin from him with the remainder.
Prosecutors said he also withheld heroin from the women, causing them to have withdrawal symptoms, and then told them to prostitute to earn money to buy heroin. Before the trial, Tucker had entered a guilty plea to the sex trafficking charge, but sought to withdraw it, citing ineffective counsel and other reasons. A judge rejected the plea, in which his lawyer described a difficult childhood, including a parent with substance abuse issues, and a criminal record going back to age The investigation of Tucker began in , when the mother of one of the women called the Manchester Police Department.
Attorney Scott W. His conduct was even more disturbing because he victimized a minor. A trailer offering a glimpse inside the bedroom of a teenage drug user is traveling the state over the next week, making stops in Concord, Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter and Manchester. Inside, it's set up with signs of drug abuse that the average parent might not notice: discarded paraphernalia in the trash, shoelaces and belts that have been used as tourniquets, stashed drugs hidden under drawers.
