PHOENIX — A convicted pimp helped with the making of an educational video that will be distributed next year by describing how he recruited girls at malls and clubs and lured them into selling their bodies.
Antoin Thurman said teen prostitutes are traded like cattle and beaten, don't keep their money and can be lured into the profession with sweet talk and designer handbags.
"I've realized I wouldn't want to see my daughter, my mother or sister in this predicament I had these girls in," said Thurman, a Phoenix resident serving a three-year sentence in the Arizona State Prison Complex-Douglas. "Not only did I mess up my life, but I messed up their lives."
The 20-minute video, the brainchild of Judge Lex Anderson of Lake Pleasant Justice Court, will be completed by the end of January. Anderson said about 1,500 DVDs are to be distributed, including to schools.
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Besides the interview with Thurman, the video will include interviews with the Maricopa County medical examiner, a psychologist, a detective and parents of a victim, said Brad Michaelson, president of Brand Canyon Co., the Scottsdale company producing and creating the video for Maricopa County Superior Court.
Intertwined with that will be a letter read by a fictitious dead teenage prostitute, Michaelson said.
"We want 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds to watch it," Michaelson said. "We took a dramatic approach so they will listen to it."
Anderson sought and received $42,000 from the Judicial Collection Enhancement Fund for the project.
A case in his courtroom involving a teenage prostitute stirred Anderson's interest and led to his discovery that child prostitution was not an aberration.
