The Office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announces charges against a Chicago man for taking part in the prostitution of a 17-year old girl through an escort service website. The defendant pled guilty to sex trafficking charges and has been sentenced to a five-year prison term.
Glenn Simmons, 32, was guilty as charged on sex trafficking case and is currently facing five years in prison. The defendant is responsible for posting the profile of a minor on an escort service website and was found to be taking the child to a suburban motel to engage in prostitution and sex acts in exchange for money. Simmons later pleaded guilty to the felony charge of Trafficking in Persons.
In 2013, the defendant was arrested during an undercover investigation, where an undercover agent went online to the backpage.com – an escort service website that is widely known to be one of the largest portals for sex on the internet. It was reported that the undercover officer had responded to the ad and enlisted the victim’s services for sexual acts. Subsequently, the undercover officer and the 17-year old victim met on August 20, 2013, in a suburban motel and were to have sex in exchange for money, as agreed upon.
Investigations revealed that on that day, the defendant drove the underaged victim to the suburban motel and has paid for the motel room, in order to host the prostitution of the young child. It was also uncovered that the defendant is the one who manages the young girl’s profile on the backpage sex portal website. Following the meet-up of the undercover agent and the young girl, as well as the investigations made, Simmons was arrested a few blocks away from the suburban motel.
The Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force – a multi-disciplinary task force made to combat human trafficking with the collaborative efforts of law enforcement and social and legal services – led the investigation of the defendant’s case. The task force was founded by the Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez in 2010 to target individuals involved in human trafficking, especially those that lead and accountable for sex trafficking women and children.
Simmons pled guilty to charges and was sentenced to five-year imprisonment by Cook County Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez commended Assistant State’s Attorney Brigid Brown of the Special Prosecutions Bureau for the exemplary work on the case and also recognized the collaborative work of the Chicago Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force, which all helped in the success in the prosecution of the case.