NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

BETH PHILLIPS

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/index.html

MAY 12, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HUMAN TRAFFICKING RESCUE PROJECT

KC MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO TRAFFICKING WOMEN

INTO FORCED PROSTITUTION

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to commercial sex trafficking.

Michael L. Buck, 37, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner this afternoon to trafficking women into involuntary servitude and coerced commercial sex.

By pleading guilty today, Buck admitted that he obtained females to engage in commercial sex acts, and that he caused them to engage in commercial sex acts through threats of serious harm, physical restraint, and force. Buck utilized a phone service, Quest, to advertise the women for sexual acts in Kansas City, Mo., and in Independence, Mo., and obtained customers from both Missouri and Kansas. He sold the women in such locations as apartments, houses, motels and strip clubs.

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia L. Cordes. It was investigated by the Independence, Mo., Police Department.

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