Two Maryland residents have been charged with using Craigslist’s erotic services section to pimp three underage girls at Baltimore-area hotels, Maryland’s U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein told The Examiner.
Byron Keith Thompson and Lea Shawnay Bell are facing three counts of sex trafficking of a minor for selling sex with two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in Maryland’s federal court.
Between January and April, the two repeatedly posted advertisements in Craigslist’s “Erotic Services” section, providing the girls’ sexual services for a fee, Rosenstein said.
In recent months, Craigslist has come under fire from law enforcement agencies across the country for its perceived role in the sex industry.
The mounting fervor against the free advertising Web site culminated last month with the arrest of a Boston medical student who alledgedly used the site to lure prostitutes to hotels where he attacked and robbed them. In one case, 22-year-old Philip Markoff is accused of shooting Julissa Brisman at a luxury Boston hotel.
In reaction to the mounting criticism, Craigslist announced last week it was eliminating the erotic services section. It will be replaced with an adult services section. The company said it would manually review every advertisement posted in the new space.
According to the indictment, Thompson and Bell posted their last advertisement for the 17-year-old on the Web site in April, before the erotic services section was taken down.
Thompson and Bell rented rooms at a Baltimore County Days Inn where the girls would meet with customers, the indictment said. On March 6, all three girls were taken to a truck stop in Jessup for a tryst.
The two instructed the teens on pricing for different sexual activities, court documents said. They sometimes told them to lie about their ages and pretend to be adults. They gave them marijuana. They provided them with clothing, food, shelter and condoms.
“It’s shocking to realize people are advertising prostitution services with children on the Internet and carrying on these activities in local hotels,” Rosenstein said.
Thompson and Bell each face a minimum of 35 years and a maximum of life in prison. No attorneys for the two were listed in court records.
