Man to face trial on pimping charges

Bill Gang

Wednesday, April 8, 1998 | 10:16 a.m.

Police said that Andre Taylor bragged about the pimp he had been and flaunted the fruits of his trade -- a $300,000 home with custom furnishings, a black Mercedes Benz and gold jewelry.

He had cut a demonstration rap compact disc entitled "The Big Pimp" under the name "Gorgeous Dre," although 2,000 of them were still sitting in his garage. He also told police he had been the technical consultant on the movie "American Pimp."

Being raised by a pimp father and prostitute mother was carried by him as a badge of achievement, a heritage that set him apart and above. He chided lawmen as people unable to understand and appreciate the life he had been born to.

And Taylor told police in Las Vegas and Los Angeles that none of his women would ever speak ill of him, sign a complaint against him or point a finger accusingly at him, according to testimony Tuesday at his preliminary hearing.

But two of them did -- one willingly and the other reluctantly and only under the threat of perjury.

Taylor is now headed for trial in District Court and will be sitting in the county jail in blue coveralls rather than the slick suit he had worn for the photo with three beautiful women that graces his CD cover.

The most detailed testimony came from an 18-year-old emotionless blonde who told Justice of the Peace Doug Smith that Taylor was her pimp before his arrest earlier this year. His neighbors in the posh area off South Buffalo Drive had complained to police that taxis ferried young women to and from the house at all hours of the night.

Cheryl Davis admitted she had been a prostitute before she met Taylor and detailed how he had coaxed her to live in his house with two other women -- a 16-year-old runaway and a veteran hooker who is now facing felony "trick roll" charges.

The witness used the vice vernacular in referring to the other women in the home as her "wives-in-law."

Taylor, Davis and the teenager also had been involved in brushes with the law but the women's charges were never serious and pimping charges against Taylor never seemed to stick.

Davis told of bringing Taylor thousands of dollars from her prostitution activities although she got little in return.

Davis indicated she didn't have the emotional connection to Taylor that the teenager did. The girl, now a resident of the county's Juvenile Detention Center, had run away from her family on several occasions to get back to Taylor, according to her testimony.

The teenager readily admitted she was a prostitute but never would admit to the judge that Taylor was her pimp. On the witness stand, she folded her arms and stared defiantly through her straight blonde hair. Her answers were terse and designed to skirt the edge of her relationship with Taylor.

In the end, her recalcitrant nature coupled with the circumstances testified to by other witness told as much as her words. Smith ruled there was sufficient evidence to hold Taylor for trial on a variety of pimping and prostitution related charges involving both women.

At the urging of Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry, Smith set bail at $2.2 million.