New Yorker sentenced to 18 years in prison for using Boston girl as a pimp for years

A New York man must serve an 18-year prison sentence for soliciting a defenseless minor for sex in the Boston area.

U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton sentenced Sheriff Cooper, 37, to 18 years in prison, followed by five years' probation and an obligation to pay $97,200 in restitution to the victim. Cooper is being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Correctional Facility in Rhode Island.

A federal grand jury convicted Cooper on February 29 of sex trafficking of minors by force, fraud and coercion, transportation of minors with intent to engage in criminal sex acts, and forced labor. He began prostituting his victim in 2018 and was charged and arrested by the FBI in 2021.

Court records show that Cooper has filed multiple motions to vacate his conviction and in June filed a civil lawsuit against his victim, seeking $11 million “for the irreparable harm caused to the defendant by retaliation for plaintiff's protected speech and for falsely accusing plaintiff of crimes he did not commit.”

Cooper, then 31, met his then 15-year-old victim in 2017 while working as a security guard at a residential program for pregnant teens. The victim, prosecutors said, had escaped from a Massachusetts Department of Children and Families center for young mothers in Dorchester.

Cooper initially had a sexual relationship with the girl and the two moved into the apartment of the minor's mother, where he began beating and drugging her. DCF placed her in a new program in Newburyport, and Cooper would stop by to have sex with her in the parking lot, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo, “and molest her when he thought she was 'cheating' on him with boys her own age.”

“In February 2018, Minor A escaped from the program and began living with Cooper,” prosecutor Stephen Hassink wrote in the sentencing memo. “She had no family to take her in and no place else to go. She had no money, no job and no support. Cooper was waiting.”

That year, Cooper began using her as a pimp in Boston. He pocketed all the money and, prosecutors wrote in court documents, “used force, threats of force and coercion to compel the victim to engage in paid sex for his financial gain.”

But that wasn't all. He had a fake ID made for her and took her to his home state of New York, where he got her a job at a strip club and pocketed all the money. And according to an affidavit Cooper himself filed in the case, he and his victim now have a son together.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said Cooper “viciously and cruelly exploited a defenseless minor.”

“When he lost his job, Mr. Cooper decided he would rather sex traffick a vulnerable child for financial gain than seek legal employment – all while physically abusing and threatening her,” Levy said in a statement.

“Their courage and bravery in bringing this defendant to justice is truly remarkable. Mr. Cooper's refusal to accept responsibility for his crimes or show remorse for the lifelong harm he has caused underscores why he truly deserves this significant sentence.”