A Nashville man was indicted by a special session of the DeKalb County Grand Jury last Friday, August 25 accused of using a 15 year old Liberty girl for prostitution.
34 year old Charles Earl Denton is charged in the sealed indictment with trafficking for commercial sex act. He is under a $250,000 bond and will be arraigned in DeKalb County Criminal Court on Monday, September 11.
Denton was picked up today (Friday) in Nashville by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department. He was being held by Metro Nashville Police after being taken into custody Thursday.
The indictment against Denton alleges that on or about August 1, 2017, Denton did knowingly recruit, entice, harbor, provide, purchase, or obtain by any other means, a 15 year old minor child for the purpose of providing a commercial sex act, in violation of state law.
The investigation by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department began on Friday, August 4th after the girl’s family reported her missing. The family said the teen sought and received permission to spend the night at a friend’s house two days before on Wednesday, August 2nd but she never came home. The investigation revealed that the girl knew Denton and that he had arranged through social media to meet her. Denton drove to Liberty on Wednesday, August 2, picked up the girl, and transported her to Nashville for the purpose of commercial sex. She was later found at a Nashville motel with another missing teen and an adult woman. Denton was not at the motel at the time.
Sheriff Patrick Ray explained how the story unfolded in the following prepared statement.
“On August 4th the Sheriff’s Department received a complaint about a missing 15 year old female in Liberty. The father of the 15 year old girl said his daughter had told him on August 2nd she was going to a friend’s house to spend the night. The next day, she texted her father back and said she wanted to spend that night with another friend. On August 4th the father could not get back in touch with her and contacted the Sheriff’s Department and filed a missing juvenile report”.
“After the report was filed on August 4th, officers tried to enter her information into the Amber Alert System, but were advised that she did not meet the standards of an amber alert because she was not abducted and left on her own free will”.
“While we were working on trying to locate the juvenile, we were able to gain access into one of her social media networks. It was discovered the juvenile was having conversations and was uploading explicit pictures of herself to a man named Charles Denton, age 34, from Nashville. It was then found there were uploads of the juvenile’s pictures along with another young girl’s picture on a website that is known to be associated with illegal activities”.
“Detectives found where they believed a person associated with the ad was located in a motel off of Wallace Road in Nashville. They called an agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation who specializes in commercial sex crimes. He went to the motel on Wallace Road and set up surveillance. The agent then called and asked for two of my detectives to come to Nashville and setup an undercover sting on the motel room. After the Detectives arrived in Nashville, a TBI agent setup an appointment to purchase sex there in a motel room through the website”.
“A decision then was made to take down whoever was in the motel room. An undercover TBI Agent went to the room as planned for the appointment to purchase sex. After he was in the room, other officers entered the room and detained everyone”.
“Officers found our missing juvenile there along with another 17 year old juvenile that was reported missing from Nashville. An adult female was also in the room with the juveniles”.
“Through an investigation, it was found that Charles Denton was the one who planned to meet our missing juvenile on August 2nd. Denton drove to Liberty here in DeKalb County and picked the juvenile up and transported her to Nashville for the purpose of commercial sex”.
“After returning back to DeKalb County, Detectives obtained a state warrant for Charles Denton”.
“On August 25th, a special called meeting of the DeKalb County Grand Jury convened and a sealed indictment was obtained for trafficking for a commercial sex act on Charles Denton”.
“Denton has been entered into the national crime information center as wanted since August 6th”.
“Denton was picked up in Davidson County on August 31st. He was transported to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department where he remains in custody on a $250,000 bond. His court date is September 11, 2017”.
“Local officers working the case were Deputy Michael Trusty, Detectives Jimmy Martin, Robert Patrick, and Stephen Barrett and Sheriff Patrick Ray,” the statement concluded.
“Sheriff Ray strongly advises parents to beware of what your child is doing on the internet. “Monitor what your children are doing on Social Media sites such as Facebook, Snap Chat, Twitter, Kik, Instagram, and text now. Pedophiles try to communicate with minors as a friend and setup meetings with children promising them freedom, money, lavish lifestyles, and sex. If you find someone trying to setup a meeting with a child or making any odd comments, please report them to us,” advised Sheriff Ray.
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