Teen’s overdose death led to sex trafficking charges for ex-professor in NY, feds say
A former college professor is sentenced to 15 years in prison after a 17-year-old’s fatal overdose led to him being convicted of sex trafficking by coercion in New York, federal officials say.
He used her “addiction to heroin to coerce her to engage in” prostitution with men in Rochester, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York.
Peter R. Kiwitt, 63, of Rochester, was sentenced to prison on Feb. 7 after, in 2019, the victim was found dead on a living room floor owned by someone, whose name wasn’t mentioned, who brought her to their home “to engage in commercial sex acts,” the attorney’s office said in a news release.
The sentencing comes after Kiwitt was charged with sex trafficking of a minor, sex trafficking by coercion, sexual enticement of a minor and possession of child pornography on Feb. 2, 2021, according to a separate news release in connection to the case.
The teen victim told investigators in December 2018, before her death, that Kiwitt “had been pimping her out since she was 16 years old,” and that “she felt like she didn’t have a choice but to do it because she was afraid of (him)”, according to court documents obtained by McClatchy News. Additionally, she said he would give her heroin and fentanyl.
“Peter accepts full responsibility for his actions,” his lawyer Lawrence L. Kasperek wrote in a Jan. 13 sentencing memorandum, adding that Kiwitt believes an FBI agent involved in the case “manipulated information.” McClatchy News has contacted Kasperek for further comment.
Kiwitt is an ex-professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. He was formerly convicted in Monroe County of one felony count of possession of sexual performance by a child in 2017 and was required to register as a Level 1 sex offender, according to a criminal complaint.
Between June 2018 and January 2019, he was accused of “knowingly” recruiting, enticing, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining and advertising the teenage victim as well as another individual, according to a superseding indictment.
Kiwitt gave a lengthy statement accepting responsibility in the Jan. 13 sentencing memo in which he said the two individuals were sisters. He wrote about meeting them and discussed their heroin use while claiming to have attempted to help them with addiction.
“Addicts are willing to risk — and will sometimes even choose — death rather than life without drugs. By definition, they cannot stop nor be stopped from using,” Kiwitt wrote in the statement.
When the teenage victim was interviewed by law enforcement in December 2018 before her overdose, she said that Kiwitt had several websites that he’d advertise girls on and that he’d “take a portion of the money” in regards to alleged prostitution, the complaint said. The teenager also said she had ”sexual intercourse” with Kiwitt, according to the complaint.
Months after the teen victim’s death, a female adult victim was interviewed by investigators and said Kiwitt “was prostituting approximately 10 girls in total,” including the teenager, and that he’d “refuse to provide any drugs to the girls if they did not prostitute,” according to prosecutors.
The adult victim said Kiwitt would supply drugs, including heroin and cocaine, to the girls and that he had her and the teenage victim engage “in commercial sex acts with the same customer at the same time” and that they “gave (him) a portion of the proceeds,” according to the complaint.
Kiwitt is also sentenced to 15 years of supervised release following his 15-year prison sentence, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Rochester is located 226 miles west of Albany.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 6:59 PM with the headline "Teen’s overdose death led to sex trafficking charges for ex-professor in NY, feds say."
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