PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s highest court has vacated the sex trafficking conviction of a 36-year-old Massachusetts man authorities say trafficked a 14-year-old girl at a now-closed Providence strip club.
The Providence Journal reports that the Rhode Island Supreme Court on Friday overturned Troy Footman’s sex-trafficking convictions based on its previous ruling in another case. The law in question was repealed after that ruling due to flaws in its wording that failed to actually charge a criminal offense. The repealed law was replaced last year by the uniform sex trafficking act.
The court also upheld Footman’s convictions for pandering and prostituting the girl. The ruling could knock 80 years off Footman’s sentence.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office says the case will likely be sent back to Superior Court.
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