A former emergency room doctor in Ohio was sentenced to 22 years in prison Thursday for sex trafficking six underage girls, who he lured through the messaging app Snapchat, the Justice Department announced.
Albert Aiad-Toss, 53, pleaded guilty in February to three counts of sex trafficking of a minor under the age of 14, three counts of sex trafficking of a minor under the age of 18, and one count of production of child pornography, Clevelend.com reported. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, a $50,000 fine and a special assessment of $40,800, according to the Justice Department statement.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 52-year-old Albert Aiad-Toss faces four counts of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of production of child pornography. https://t.co/NILQvjZafR
— Anti-HTCoordinator (@OhioAntiHTrfk) February 25, 2021
The case is the Northern District of Ohio’s largest juvenile sex trafficking prosecution, according to the statement. (RELATED: ‘Don’t Buy Sex In Ohio’: State Attorney General David Yost Announces 109 Human Trafficking Victims Rescued In Statewide Operation)
Former Youngstown Area Physician Sentenced to 22 Years for Sex Trafficking Minors: Albert Aiad-Toss of Canfield has been sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment for seven counts of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of child exploitation. https://t.co/1X2G0X20Sj
— FBI Cleveland (@FBICleveland) June 3, 2021
Over the course of nearly the entire month of June 2019, Aiad-Toss used Snapchat to lure six minor female victims between the ages of 12 and 15 to have sex with him in exchange for money, alcohol, new clothes, and other valuable items, according to the Justice Department.
At the time of the offenses, Aiad-Toss was an emergency room doctor at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Boardman, but he was employed by an outside company, according to WFMJ. Aiad-Toss was a resident of Youngstown.
Aiad-Toss would arrange to meet the girls at coffee shops and pay $100 for the sessions, according to Cleveland.com. He would budget $2,000 per month to spend on the girls that he would sexually exploit, the Justice Department said. He would reportedly pay the girls as much as $500 for sex, and would also give them marijuana and alcohol.
He paid one 12-year-old girl $200, court records showed, according to Cleveland.com.
Authorities say he would try to avoid detection by targeting girls in a county roughly 90 miles away from his home, and would arrange for the girls to enter hotel rooms where he would meet them through a side door so as to not cast suspicion by bystanders.
Prosecutors said Aiad-Toss had driven to an adult sex store with the girls, who remained in the vehicle because they were too young to enter the store, according to Cleveland.com.
Sometimes, his encounters would involve more than one underage girl. A surveillance video from June 2019 showed him inside a hotel with three underage victims, and an image taken days later showed him in a vehicle with three underage victims as well, according to the Justice Department.
Police received a tip that summer about a man having sex with a young girl, which led them to Aiad-Toss. He was arrested on July 5, 2019. (RELATED: More Than 100 Persons Arrested In Massive Ohio Sex Trafficking Sting Including Doctor, Church Leader)
“I don’t understand how you budget $2,000 a month to do this,” U.S. District Judge Pamela Barker told Aiad-Toss Thursday, according to Cleveland.com. “The conduct is reprehensible.”
Barker said she received a letter from one of Aiad-Toss’s victims, who said she experienced anger, fear, and depression because of what happened to her.
“She’ll never be the same again,” Barker reportedly said.
Aiad-Toss’s friends and family asked the judge to consider his mental health struggles, and described Aiad-Toss as a dedicated husband and father who was an active member at their Presbyterian church, according to WFMJ.
“He comes from a very clean family, he’s the type of person that you would trust your kids with,” Irene Samy, who belonged to Aiad-Toss’s church in Egypt, said in a letter, according to WFMJ.
Aiad-Toss’s ex-wife Lynee Zagotti said he developed a substance abuse problem, and was experiencing difficulties from a midlife crisis, his daughters leaving home, and stress from his job.
“The press and news outlets has made Albert look like a monster and that is just not right,” Zagotti said in a letter to the judge, according to WFMJ.
“He is not the man portrayed by the news stories and by the government in this case. He is a good person who would not hurt anyone if he was in his right frame of mind.”