Attorney Rod Rosenstein told The Examiner. 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, 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 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.
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. Beltway Confidential. Washington Secrets.
Two charged with using Craigslist to sell minors for sex by Freeman Klopott. Freeman Klopott. More Washington Examiner.
Monday August 02, Michelle Cummings should be alive. The justice system failed to protect her time and again. The mother who was dropping off her son, a newly inducted midshipman at the U. Naval Academy, died according to charges filed against him at the hands of a violent criminal with a long rap sheet named Angelo Harrod, who should never have been on the streets.