Two girls ran away from their group home. That night they were sexually abused by an Oakland pimp, police say

OAKLAND — Two 14-year-old girls were rescued in an Oakland neighborhood known for prostitution, hours after authorities say their suspected pimp sexually abused them at a nearby hotel, court records show.

Now the suspect, 20-year-old Terrell Williams, has been charged with rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, pandering, human trafficking and corporal injury to a child, court records show. He is being held in lieu of $256,000 bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and has pleaded not guilty.

Police say the two girls ran away from their group home on Dec. 14, and ended up with Williams. According to court records, he allegedly raped one of them at the Park Lane Hotel on MacArthur Boulevard, and later told the girl to go to “work” on International Boulevard, a well-known open air sex market. Police stopped the girl around 4:20 p.m. on Dec. 15, for wearing scantily clad lingerie, and discovered her young age and runaway status, court records show.

The girl later told police that “she watched the same suspect have sexual intercourse with two other juvenile females,” investigators said in court records. He also allegedly struck one of them with a charging cable during an argument, authorities said.

The charging records list two victims, both 14. One of them texted the group home for help using a tablet, which was later found broken at the hotel, authorities said.

Williams has prior convictions for domestic violence and making criminal threats, court records show. He was also investigated — but never charged — in two alleged sexual assault incidents last August, authorities said. In one of those incidents, the victim claimed he told her that he had been “pimping girls in Arizona and Las Vegas,” which led to an argument, and an allegation that he raped her, according to authorities.

Williams’ preliminary hearing has been set for Jan. 6, court records show.