A Charles County judge sentenced a Nanjemoy man on Monday to 12 years in prison for the April statutory rape and forced prostitution of a 13-year-old girl.
Perraz Lydell Chisley, 21, was indicted July 15 on more than 20 counts of human trafficking, rape and sex offenses after the girl told police he had forced her to perform sex acts with several other men in exchange for food, clothing and shelter.
The girl was found April 30, more than a week after she had run away from home with a friend. Unable to stay at her friend’s house, the girl took a taxi to a gas station on Berry Road in Waldorf, where Chisley offered her a ride home, according to court papers.
Chisley told the girl to tell anyone they met that she was 19 and took her to a house in Marbury, where the two had consensual sex, the papers state. In Maryland, anyone who has sex with someone younger than 14 and is four or more years older than him or her has committed statutory rape.
The girl stayed with Chisley, who bought her food and clothing, but after a few days demanded $300 in reimbursement. He told the girl she would need to have sex with other men to pay him back, court records state.
Over the next few days, Chisley took the girl to several “customers” in Prince George’s and Charles counties and Virginia and collected all of the money they paid to have sex with her. In Charles County, five men paid a total of $200, the records show.
Chisley’s indictment states the crimes occurred between April 16 and 30, when the girl finally escaped from a Virginia hotel with another girl Chisley had picked up.
Chisley pleaded guilty Oct. 17 to second-degree rape and entered an Alford plea to the human trafficking charge. In a separate case, in which Chisley was accused of bringing a gun to the group assault of another man in July, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree assault and carrying a handgun.
In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed Chisley would not serve more than 12 years in prison.
At sentencing, public defender William Renehan asked Circuit Judge Robert C. Nalley to recommend that Chisley serve his time in the Patuxent Institution treatment facility in Jessup. Renehan argued that his client’s crime was mitigated because he thought the girl was of age.
“In his defense,” Renehan began, before Nalley cut him off.
“Do not say Good Samaritan,” the judge warned.
“No, no, no, no,” Renehan said. “She lied about her age.”
“Well, that’s one version,” Nalley retorted. “The other version is she was told to.”
Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney John Stackhouse, who requested that Nalley sentence Chisley to the full 12 years, made plain what he thought of Renehan’s reasoning.
“This isn’t always the case, but in this case I completely disagree with Mr. Renehan, his spin on this case,” Stackhouse said, pointing out that Chisley had “pimped” the victim to multiple males. “He’s victimizing a 13-year-old girl. I understand he’s young, but he’s old enough to know not to do that.
“I would be very surprised if she recovers from this. ... There is no doubt in my mind that this little girl, who is a runaway, will be affected by this the rest of her life.”
Chisley told Nalley that the victim claimed she was 19.
“If I had known her age, I never would have put myself in this situation,” Chisley said.
“And you believed her?” Nalley asked, incredulously.
“I believed her at the time,” Chisley said.
Chisley also told Nalley he did not have a gun on him when he and a group of men confronted another man in his home July 31.
But the judge concluded that, even if Chisley’s mitigated accounts of both crimes were true, “this is behavior the community cannot tolerate.”
“Frankly, whether what went on with [the 13-year-old girl] is closer to your version or her version is immaterial,” Nalley said. “Even if the situation was merely enabling a prostitute to function, you’re still a pimp.”
Nalley sentenced Chisley to 20 years for the rape charge, suspending all but 12 years, and five years of supervised probation. He also gave Chisley three concurrent sentences of 10, three and seven years for the human trafficking, gun and conspiracy charges, respectively.
Nalley recommended Chisley serve his time in the Patuxent Institute.
jnewman@somdnews.com
