Kansas City, Mo., man charged with transporting woman to KCK hotel parking lot for prostitution

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 St. in Kansas City, Kan., both he and the woman were arrested.

Investigators learned Horne 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, Kan., Police Department, Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department, Overland Park, Kan., Police Department, and the FBI investigated.