He was a pimp and a babysitter, court docs allege in KC sex trafficking case

A 32-year-old man has been charged with forcing a young mother to travel the country and work as a prostitute.

Clifford D. Brewster was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City with sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud or coercion.

Brewster, who according to court documents is a registered sex offender, was arrested in Chicago earlier this month and charged there with promotion of prostitution and sex trafficking.

According to court documents, the Kansas City charge stems from an investigation last October in which an undercover FBI agent answered an ad on Backpage.com.

The agent was told to go to a hotel room in Kansas City, North. There he met a woman who called herself Courtney and another female who was a minor, according to the documents.

After money was exchanged, other officers moved in and the woman and girl were detained.

The woman told agents that she had met Brewster in 2016 in Springfield, Mo. She said he took her to Chicago to engage in prostitution.

At first, she said she thought she loved him, but over time he became more aggressive and kept all the money she earned.

He provided her with methamphetamine and threatened to take her baby, she alleged.

She told the agents that Brewster also used the minor as a prostitute, but the girl denied that she worked as a prostitute.

As part of the follow-up investigation, agents tracked down receipts for hotel rooms rented by Brewster in Peoria, Ill., Springfield and the Kansas City area.

The FBI in Kansas City passed along information to Chicago police and the FBI there. On March 3, an undercover agent arranged a date through another Backpage ad.

Once again, the ad was answered by "Courtney," and the undercover agent met her at a Chicago hotel.

She said that Brewster babysat her 11-month-old child, which he did whenever she had "dates" with prostitution customers.

The woman told agents that Brewster beat and choked her if she refused to work, and threatened to have her child taken away.

Police found Brewster nearby, and returned the child to the woman. She and the child were taken to a hospital for medical evaluations.

This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 10:20 AM with the headline "He was a pimp and a babysitter, court docs allege in KC sex trafficking case."