NEW YORK (AP) — An ex-con was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison after a teenage girl recounted how he forced her to have sex with NFL legend Lawrence Taylor last year in a hotel just outside of New York City.
Cristina Fierro said she was assaulted by Rasheed Davis before he dropped her off at Taylor’s room. She was 16 at the time.
“I told Lawrence Taylor it was my first time and that I did not feel comfortable,” Fierro said while reading from a prepared statement. “He went ahead anyway and had sexual intercourse with me. … I had tears coming down my face, and still had my black eye and bloody nose.”
She added, “Every day I look in the mirror and know that I am not the same. It was a nightmare that should never have happened to me and it should never happen to any other teenage girl.”
Davis, 38, had pleaded guilty to transporting a minor for paid sex, but has objected to being labeled a pimp. He choked up and apologized to both his family and Fierro, now 18, before hearing the sentence in federal court in Manhattan.
“I’m sorry for what happened,” he said.
Prosecutors had sought up to 10 years for Davis, saying he lured Fierro off city streets and into prostitution by first telling her she could make good money as a stripper.
“He sold her body like it was his property. … He worked as a pimp,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Kramer said Wednesday.
Earlier this year, Taylor pleaded guilty in state court to sexual misconduct and patronizing a prostitute, and was ordered to serve six months of probation.
The former linebacker admitted paying the girl $300 after the encounter in Ramapo, about 30 miles northwest of the Bronx. But he said he didn’t know she was a minor.
Fierro told the judge that Davis had instructed her to lie and tell Taylor her name was Carmine and she was 19. She also said the defendant made her give him the pile of cash.
Davis, 38, was released from state prison in 2008 after serving time for a manslaughter conviction for firing a gun into a crowd and killing a bystander.
The Associated Press does not normally publish the name of accusers in sexual assault cases unless they agree to be named or identify themselves publicly, as Fierro has done.
Fierro, who’s represented by high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred, had spoken out publicly before to complain that the punishment for Taylor was not harsh enough. She read her entire statement to reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday before the sentencing began.
Taylor led the New York Giants to Super Bowl titles in 1987 and 1991.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
