Two Men Indicted For Sex Trafficking Of A Minor

Baltimore, Maryland – A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment today charging Rodney Hubert, a/k/a “Noah,” age 38, of Baltimore and New York, New York, and Charles Hufton, a/k/a “CJ,” age 25, of Cockeysville, Maryland, with conspiring to traffic a minor to engage in commercial sex acts and with sex trafficking of a minor.

The superseding indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.

According to the indictment, from December 2012 through February 22, 2013, Hubert, a registered sex offender and Hufton, a bouncer at a lounge in Baltimore City, recruited and transported females, some of whom were minors, to engage in commercial sex acts for money. The defendants allegedly offered a “finders fee” to female prostitutes if they found additional females to work for them and took provocative or explicit photographs of the females and posted them to websites that host advertisements for commercial sex. According to the indictment, Hubert and Hufton provided a residence in Parkville, Maryland, for the females to host “in-call” prostitution and drove the females to “out-call” prostitution locations. Hubert and Hufton allegedly collected a large percentage of the females’ earnings.

Specifically, the indictment alleges that Hubert recruited a 19 year old associate to work for him as a prostitute beginning in December 2012. Hubert offered the 19 year old a commission to recruit the 16 year old victim to perform prostitution for Hubert. Hubert invited the minor victim to live with him, offered $400 to take provocative photographs of the victim wearing lingerie, and offered her $1,000 to make a pornographic film. According to the indictment, Hubert and Hufton created a pseudonym for the minor victim, “Ashley,” and advertised online that she would prostitute at both the Parkville “in-call” location and at “out-call” locations of prospective clients. Hufton allegedly used his phone to create and post the prostitution advertisements online and drove the prostitutes, including the minor victim, to “out-call” locations and collected a portion of their earnings.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

The case was investigated by the FBI-led Maryland Child Exploitation Task Force (MCETF), created in 2010 to combat child prostitution, with members from10 state and federal law enforcement agencies. The Task Force coordinates with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Maryland State Police Child Recovery Unit to identify missing children being advertised online for prostitution.

MCETF partners with the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking while identifying and prosecuting offenders. Members include federal, state and local law enforcement, as well as victim service providers and local community members. For more information about the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, please visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/md/priorities_human.html.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, Baltimore County Police Department and Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark W. Crooks, who is prosecuting the case.