Denise 'Bones Marie' Coronado.
A Texas judge tripled the bail Monday for a 19-year-old woman who went by the nickname “Bones Marie,” and who stood accused of forcing a 14-year-old girl into sex slavery.
Denise Coronado, 19, allegedly forced the abducted runaway into sex with dozens of men, Fox 26 reported. “She had multiple men brought in to have sex with her while her captors collected the money,” Assistant District Attorney JoAnne Musick said.
After prosecutors said Coronado had been arrested previously for possession of marijuana and assault, District Judge Nikita Harmon raised the 19-year-old’s bail from $30,000 to $100,000.
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“We're not going to tolerate human traffickers, pimps or pimpettes enslaving our kids, enslaving our people in our county," Ruben Perez, the chief of the DA’s special crimes division told the Houston Chronicle. "We have a cadre of lawyers willing to prosecute these people and we're ready."
Musick said the 14-year-old girl was kidnapped and taken to a house in a wooded area where she was raped by an unidentified man while Coronado watched.
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Days later, photos of the girl in lingerie were found on Backpage.com, a website that prosecutors described as a place to promote illicit acts like prostitution.
Prosecutors said the teen allegedly was threatened and burned with a cigarette so that she would comply with being forced to have sex with 26 men over the course of a week.
The girl eventually got a hold of a phone and contacted her family through a Facebook message, informing them she was in danger and did not know where she was, investigators said.
Days passed before two passers-by helped her escape and took her to a motel. There, the teen was able to keep her phone on continuously, allowing the police to track her, according to reports.
After Monday’s hearing, Coronado’s court-appointed attorney noted some inconsistencies in the victim’s story.
"If this young girl is actually being held against her will, why was she allowed access to a telephone and able to get on Facebook?" said Joe David Wells. "If she was kidnapped, why did she go to another hotel instead of going home?"
If convicted on the charge of compelling prostitution, she could face 20 years behind bars.
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