The U.S. government's case against a Little Rock man on trial on charges of sex trafficking a minor proceeded at a brisk pace after opening arguments Wednesday morning at the federal courthouse in Little Rock.
Anthony "Forever" Atkins, 25, was arrested in June 2018 on accusations of prostituting a 17-year-old girl online after an undercover Little Rock police officer set up a "date" with her by contacting a phone number in an ad on a website.
Atkins, having secured U.S. District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky's permission to have five minutes to speak in the mornings and the evenings outside of the jury's presence, attempted several times to speak during testimony in front of the jury despite attempts by his attorneys, Latrece Gray and Tamera Deaver, to keep him quiet as he protested his prosecution and incarceration.
Given two minutes to speak out of the jury's hearing before a recess Wednesday morning, Atkins began to read a rambling statement that Rudofsky cut off when he began to make references to the victim in the case.
"Stop, stop, Mr. Atkins, you can't get into any facts," Rudofsky said as Atkins attempted to talk over him. "We're not going to get into any facts, this is not the appropriate time."
"Why is she here?" Atkins demanded as Gray attempted to restrain him. "I've already fired her judge. I don't know why they're here representing me. I'm a TDA account holder and three-thirds of a person..."
Rudofsky, trying to explain why Atkins was not allowed to represent himself, finally gave up and recessed the court.
"What are you doing?" Atkins demanded as federal marshals began to escort him from the courtroom. "What are you doing? I don't want her to represent me. What are you doing?"
After Atkins was returned to the courtroom, Rudofsky told him that after two hearings before going to trial regarding Atkins' desire to represent himself, the matter was closed.
"I was very clear about what the standard was if you wanted to represent yourself," Rudofsky said. "And I was very clear that you didn't meet that standard and we were going ahead and Ms. Gray and Ms. Deaver would continue to represent you. If this case ever gets up to the 8th Circuit, that is one of the things you can tell the 8th Circuit and they'll look at it and either decide that I was wrong or I was right, but we are past that moment now."
Atkins then demanded to be excused from the trial.
"It's in the U.S. code annotated," he said. "It's my right to be excused."
"Your client has asked not to be here," Rudofsky said to Gray and Deaver. "What is your position on that?"
Gray asked that Atkins be compelled to remain present for the trial. Rudofsky asked Bryant and Moore if a precedent existed in law that would address the issue of whether Atkins should be allowed to be excused or compelled to remain present.
"I don't want to commit reversible error by forcing him to be at his own trial," Rudofsky said.
After a brief discussion, Rudofsky and the four attorneys concluded that at the defense attorneys' insistence, Atkins could be forced to remain in attendance.
Little Rock police detective Raymond Koonce testified how the girl, identified only as "L.D.," came to his attention and described her arrest on June 20, 2018, which in turn led to Atkins' arrest a few days later.
Koonce described how he sent a text message to a phone number listed on an ad for an escort that was suspected to be the girl police were looking for.
"Why did you do that?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Benecia Moore, who, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant, is prosecuting the case.
"To try and set up a date," Koonce said. "We started a text conversation and were corresponding back and forth with the person on the other end of the line."
Asked how he initiated the conversation, the officer said he texted, "Hey, I love me some booty. I saw your ad on cityxguide and was wanting to meet up for real."
The response he received, he said, was an inquiry asking him if he was affiliated with law enforcement agencies.
"Is that a common response?" Moore asked.
"If the escort is a front for prostitution, it is," Koonce said. "Of course they don't want to get arrested and there's a misconception that law enforcement can't lie when they ask a direct question like that."
After arranging the meeting, Koonce said he drove to a restaurant parking lot where L.D. met him and after a few minutes of small talk, he said, they drove to a gas station on Broadway in the downtown area where he gave her $20 on the pretext of sending her inside to purchase a condom. After she got out of the car, he said, two undercover officers approached her and she was arrested after a brief scuffle.
A few days later, when Atkins was arrested, a search of his home turned up a suitcase, clothes and makeup that belonged to L.D.
Gray, working to cast doubt on the government's assertion that Atkins knew L.D. was underage, pointed out that the ad claimed her age as 22 and she suggested the girl could pass for 18.
"You see at some point a female approach your vehicle," Gray said. "You're not thinking there's no way this girl's 22, is that correct?"
"I was told she was a minor so I was not expecting a 22-year-old," Koonce responded.
"She looked 22, is that correct?" Gray prodded.
"She looked 18-ish," Koonce said. "18 to 22, I mean it's kind of, once you're 40 years old then the young girls look young, yeah."
"But you would not have looked at her and thought, oh, that girl's got to be in fifth grade," Gray said.
"No ma'am, not at all," Koonce said.
L.D., now 20, spent just over an hour on the stand, describing for the jury sexual abuse she said she had suffered as a child, a parade of foster homes she was sent to after the Department of Human Services took her from her family, and the difficulties she had after being adopted at 13 by a family in Central Arkansas.
L.D. said that by the time she started high school she began running away from home. In April and May of 2018 she said she went to stay with a friend in Little Rock, identified as Taylor, as well as her mother and two men she identified as Keshawn and Tay.
"Who was Keshawn?" Bryant asked.
"Keshawn was Taylor's pimp," she said.
In May 2018, L.D. said, Tay began trafficking her over a two-week period, after which she said she left and moved in with Atkins.
"Why did you have to live with Mr. Atkins?" Bryant asked.
"I didn't want to go home," L.D. replied.
During the three weeks she lived with Atkins until her arrest, L.D. said her arrangement with him was that she could live there if she worked for him.
"What does work for him mean?" asked Bryant.
"Sell myself for sex," L.D. said, saying that Atkins would arrange her "dates" and tell her how much to collect, after which she would return home and turn the money over to him.
When the trial reconvenes today, jurors will hear from two more prosecution witnesses, including an FBI agent who was involved in the investigation, after which Gray and Deaver will present Atkins' defense. It is unclear if Atkins will testify.