Prosecutors drop case against accused sex trafficking driver
After losing contact with its primary witness, the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office has dropped its case against a 27-year-old Annapolis man arrested last fall in connection to a prostitution service.
Luis Fernando Romero-Calvo was charged with two misdemeanor sex trafficking counts, prostitution and several drug possession offenses after police surveilled his actions and obtained a search warrant in early September.
According to charging documents, Romero-Calvo repeatedly drove a sex worker from an Annapolis apartment to the homes of clients. The worker, an unidentified immigrant, later told authorities she was taken from New York to Maryland to pay off the debt she owed for being brought to the United States. Because she could not speak English, she was told by her debtors she could only be employed as a sex worker, according to the documents.
She said she was only allowed to leave the Annapolis apartment she was staying in when Romero-Calvo took her to serve a client.
When police searched residences and property connected to Romero-Calvo, they found over $9,000 in cash and 18 grams of a substance tested as cocaine. In his Jeep Compass, according to charging documents, police found a pack of 134 condoms, multiple cellphones and handmade business cards with his phone number written on them.
Romero-Calvo was, until last week, scheduled for trial on March 21.
Though the woman was initially offered assistance by law enforcement, including temporary lodging and funding, she declined the help, said Heather Stone, a spokesperson with the State’s Attorney’s Office. The woman then turned off her phone, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office, and has not responded to any form of communication.
Due to the lack of evidence caused by the woman’s absence, the six charges against Romero-Calvo were dismissed after a Feb. 22 hearing.
On the drug charges, specifically, the spokesperson told The Capital the prosecution’s “ability to prove possession was lacking.”
Romero-Calvo was released from the Jennifer Road Detention Center the same day.