Women raped, beaten, choked in Detroit home, FBI says

Detroit — Federal prosecutors accused two men Friday of maintaining a drug house where women were raped, beaten, choked, drugged and forced into prostitution.

Erskin "Evil" Perryman and Eligah "Pops" Goodmon were arrested and charged with felony firearm possession, drug possession and maintaining a drug house, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

Court records chronicle an investigation involving at least eight women, two convicted felons and a two-story brick home in the 1900 block of Hazelwood Street near the Lodge Freeway and Chicago Boulevard.

The nearly four-year investigation intensified in December after law enforcement found a dead woman inside the home. Investigators found drugs in a purse and her body near a tan couch that matched one shown in the woman's commercial sex advertisement on the website MegaPersonals.com.

The emergency response was the latest in a string of incidents at the home involving police.

In September 2016, an unidentified woman told Detroit Police officers that Goodmon and another man offered her crack cocaine for sex, according to a federal criminal complaint.

"She agreed, and the men took turns having sex with her for several hours," according to an FBI special agent to the Southeast Michigan Trafficking and Exploitation Crimes Task Force. The woman "asked the men to stop several times and they forcefully continued the acts."

The woman said she was slapped in the face and choked and, when she tried to leave, was threatened with a gun, according to the complaint.

Police searched the home and found two firearms, including a 20-gauge shotgun.

Officers got another call four months later.

A second woman told officers she was drugged by a man named "Pops," which the FBI said is Goodmon's nickname.

At one point, the woman fell asleep, only to awake and find Goodmon having intercourse with her, the government alleges.

"The woman "kicked 'Pops,' grabbed her belongings, and left the Hazelwood address," the FBI agent wrote.

In April 2017, a third woman told Detroit Police investigators she lived at the home with Goodmon and was forced into conducting commercial sex dates for a man nicknamed "Meech," according to the complaint.

"When asked why (the woman) does it, (she) responded 'because I like to eat, and have somewhere to stay,'" according to the complaint. "'And also the drugs.'"

In June 2018, a fourth woman told investigators she conducted commercial sex dates at the home.

"(She) stated that if any of the girls living at the subject premises refused to work by doing commercial sex dates, Goodmon would kick them out or beat them," the FBI agent wrote. "(The woman) stated that Goodmon would often force himself, sexually, on all of the girls living at the residence."

Another woman told investigators Perryman pistol-whipped a woman at the home and that, in general, women living at the home worked for Perryman by performing commercial sex dates, according to the complaint.

"Perryman provided these women with drugs," the agent wrote. "Perryman did not allow the women to leave the residence for more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, and he was often violent with them."

The woman knew "Goodmon to force himself sexually on women in the house," the agent added.

Investigators raided the home Wednesday, arrested Perryman and Goodmon and found heroin, crack cocaine, traces of fentanyl, and a large amount of currency, according to the complaint. Investigators also found seven firearms.

rsnell@detroitnews.com