EAST ST. LOUIS – This week, Robin Thompson, a twenty-five year old Park Hills, Missouri, woman pled guilty in federal district court in East St. Louis, Illinois, to one count of Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking of Minor and by Force, Fraud, or Coercion, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, James L. Porter, announced Friday.
Thompson is scheduled for sentencing on September 15, 2016, before the Honorable Michael J. Reagan, at which time she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, not more than 5 years of supervised release after her prison term, a mandatory special assessment of $100, and restitution.
Facts presented in court revealed that during a six-week period in June and July 2015, Thompson took part in a venture with her husband, co-defendant Marcus Dewayne Thompson, which involved the recruitment, transportation, and advertisement of a minor female from Illinois for commercial sex acts in Florida, Georgia and Louisiana.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
