Kansas City, Mo. Man Charged With Transporting Woman for Prostitution

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas City, Mo., man was charged in federal court for enticing an 18-year-old woman across state lines for prostitution, Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

Derrick D. Horne, 26, Kansas City, Mo., was charged with one count of enticing a person to cross state lines to engage in prostitution. A criminal complaint alleged the case grew out of an undercover operation by the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department and the FBI to target individuals who promote prostitution and to recover victims of human trafficking.

On Oct. 15, 2016, an undercover officer responded to an adult website advertisement and arranged to meet a sex worker and to pay for sex, starting at $150 for half an hour. When Horne dropped the sex worker off to meet the officer at a recreational vehicle parked behind a hotel at 1805 N. 110th Street in Kansas City, Kan., both he and the woman were arrested.

Investigators learned Horned had recruited the woman to be a prostitute, saying she could be his “lil business woman/escort” and she would “get money for doing nothing (the) majority of the time.” The first time Horne set up an appointment for the woman, the client paid $170. Horne got $80 and the woman got $90.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department, Overland Park, Kansas Police Department, and the FBI investigated.

In all cases, defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The indictments merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.