Bigger fish set for trial as woman charged with promoting prostitution takes plea

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---An Ohio woman took a plea deal to testify against a man being held for sex trafficking.

Tiffany Lyons, 41, now living in Defiance, was charged in February 2024 with a Level 5 felony for promoting prostitution over a long 2023 November weekend in Fort Wayne. She appeared in Allen Superior Court in early March.

Antonio Liddell

Tiffany Lyons

In exchange for probation instead prison, Lyons told The Probable Cause that it's understood she is to testify against Antonio Liddell, the man accused of sex trafficking.  A Level 5 felony can carry a sentence between one and six years.

Lyons agreed to testify even though she’s afraid of Liddell, who is good at “manipulation,” she said. The manipulation is how she got talked into the scheme in the first place, Lyons said outside the courtroom.

In a probable cause affidavit written by Detective S. Schmieman of the Fort Wayne Police Department, the victim said she had been living with Liddell in Toledo for a couple of weeks "when Liddell told her to pack up her stuff for the weekend, they were going to Indiana.”

Just before leaving for the Hoosier state, Lyons showed up at Liddell's home and met the victim. Liddell told the women "they were not to speak to each other." Between Nov. 3 and Nov. 5, 2023, the women were set up first at the Motel 6 on West Coliseum Boulevard and, then, at the Quality Inn on West Washington Center Road

The victim and Lyons stayed in one room while Liddell stayed in another, court documents said. In text messages between Lyons, Liddell and the victim, Lyons is referred to as "wife." 

It was Lyons' job to advertise sexual services on skipthegames.com and another site called megapersonals.com that resulted in a wide range of “clients,” Lyons told The Probable Cause. 

After her hearing, Lyons said men from all walks of life responded to the ads. Sex for hire started at $150 for a half hour and then jumped to at least $250 an hour, “depending on what they wanted.” Sometimes they hired Lyons or both of the women,  she said.

There were plenty of men of means, she said, and not one of them has been charged for engaging in prostitution, at least not in information provided in court documents.

Lyons told the detective that she didn’t know the victim prior to going to Fort Wayne, that Liddell told her “to talk to the victim as little as possible,” that she knew she was coming to Fort Wayne to post ads for sex and that “they would perform whatever service the client asked for,” court documents said. She said she thought the victim was in her 20s.

Clients paid in cash or on Cash App. If the victim was paid in cash, she immediately turned the money over to Liddell, Lyons said out of court, and that she was never paid.

Although police are known to patrol the problem hotels in the area, it was the victim who arranged her own escape and called 9-1-1 from Liddell’s 2013 black Dodge Journey. She had already told Liddell and Lyons she wanted to go home, court documents said. When Lyons was on the phone to Liddell, the victim grabbed the car keys and made off, Lyons said.

The victim waited as detectives arrived at a car dealership on West Coliseum where she made the call. 

The victim told the detective that when Liddell found out she wanted to go home he pushed her into the bathroom, and “came up behind the victim and put his arm around her neck and began to choke her until she almost lost consciousness,” court documents said.

Lyons' plea deal calls for two years suspended, spent on probation. Asked by Allen Superior Court Judge David Zent what she did to plead guilty, she admitted to forcing the victim to prostitute herself. “I set up clients for her to sell her body,” Lyons said in court.

She will be sentenced on April 11. Liddell is charged with Level 4 Promotion of Sexual Trafficking. If convicted, he could face a sentence between two and 12 years. Liddell’s three-day trial is set to begin on March 25.