The young woman said she came forward after Ms. Mitchell began complaining to the employee that she was out at night and on weekends — an attempt she says was intended to pressure her into working for Mr. Mitchell.
Mr Mitchell was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison after his conviction in 2008. He was released for more than a year in early January 2013, federal records show.
After spending the next five years under mandatory supervision, Mr. Mitchell back to sex trafficking, prosecutors said.
Law enforcement officers didn’t know he’d done that. They said Mr Mitchell met his sex offender registration requirements, which included filing state papers annually.
He was also required to provide his social media accounts, but no one was required by law to monitor them. Prosecutors say he used them to post photos of the women who worked for him with boastful captions.
The New York City Police Department, which is responsible for monitoring unsupervised sex offenders in the city, said the sex offender monitoring unit had no way of knowing that Mr Mitchell’s address was a foster home. The unit, which has 14 officers monitoring more than 9,600 registered offenders, does not have a foster home list and officers do not make home visits unless an offender does not meet registration requirements, police said.
At the Mitchells apartment building in Hunts Point, a neighbor said she often saw scantily clad women visiting the apartment to sell sex services around the block.
The woman, who declined to be named because she said she was afraid of Mr. Mitchell, said she was surprised and relieved to hear the police banging on his door last month.
Susan C. Beachy research contributed. Andy Newman contributed reporting.
