Washington County Circuit Judge Brett R. Wilson recently sentenced Kenika Danielle Leach to 15 years in prison for running a sex-trafficking organization across Maryland, according to the Maryland Attorney General’s office.
Leach, a 33-year-old Baltimore woman, recruited women from Hagerstown and forced them to perform sex work at hotels in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County, according to a news release.
The operation was called the Pussy Kat Klub and Leach was known as the operation’s “First Lady.” In 2019 and 2020 Leach provided drugs to at least 11 women in exchange for engaging in commercial sex acts and used violence to control the women, according to the news release.
“Kenika Danielle Leach has more than earned every single day of her prison sentence, as she callously exploited vulnerable members of our local communities,” Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations Baltimore said in a statement.
The investigation into Leach began in 2021 when one of the women whom Leach had coerced into sex work went to Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore for pregnancy complications. The woman was accompanied by a man she identified as “Uncle Joseph” who would not leave the hospital. When police interviewed the woman, she said she met Leach in Hagerstown during a period of homelessness. Leach then transported the woman to the Baltimore area, where she said Leach physically and psychologically abused her and paid her in drugs for performing sex work.
Investigators from the Baltimore Police Department, the Office of the Attorney General, Homeland Security Investigations and Maryland State Police identified 10 additional women who were trafficked by Leach, according to the release.
The women reportedly met male “customers” in at least nine hotels in Washington, Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties, including near Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Investigators found online communications between Leach and the men in which they negotiated sex acts and prices, along with Cash App and other online financial transactions that appeared to be related to the “dates” advertised. Leach took in thousands of dollars from her Cash App account between 2020 and 2021.
She was arrested on unrelated warrants in January 2024 and admitted to the scheme, though she told investigators that her goal was to take the women “off the streets.” She pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, distribution of cocaine and receiving the earnings of a sex worker and was sentenced Feb. 26.
Rachel Reyes, assistant public defender for Frederick County, is listed as Leach’s most recent attorney in the Maryland Judiciary. She did not return a request for comment.
“Today’s sentencing is a critical step toward justice for the survivors, but they will carry these wounds for the rest of their lives,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement. “I can only hope that this outcome brings some measure of closure so they can continue to heal and reclaim their lives.”
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