Third charged with selling 14-year-old into prostitution in McHenry Co.
A third Lake in the Hills resident is now facing charges alleging she and two others brought a 14-year-old girl to their home from Kansas and put her to work as a prostitute.
Kari D. Knox, 36, of the 3500 block of Sonoma Circle, was charged Friday with involuntary servitude of a minor and juvenile pimping, felony allegations that could earn her a 30-year prison term if convicted on both counts.
Mary Frake, Chief of Support Services for Lake in the Hills police, said Knox had a role in the "transportation and facilitating meetings" with men who paid to have sex with the girl.
Police arrested Knox's housemates, Donald R. Jones, 52, and Antwanette R. Atkins, 42, on the same charges Thursday, saying they meet the teenager over MySpace, an online social networking site. After several communications, police said, the accused drove out to Kansas last month and brought the girl back to Lake in the Hills, where they sold her for sex beginning Dec. 31.
Jones and Atkins each appeared Friday before a McHenry County judge, who set their bail at $250,000 and $200,000, respectively, and assigned each a public defender. Both remained in custody at the county jail later in the day, unable to post bond. They are set to return to court Jan. 29.
The girl, police said, was on Lake in the Hills for just a few days and has since returned to Kansas.
Knox currently is in custody at the Cook County jail awaiting transfer to the Illinois Department of Corrections to serve a one-year prison term handed down Jan. 6 on a felony prostitution charge. A $200,000 warrant has been issued in the new case and she will be transferred to McHenry County before her release from prison.
Frake said police will continue to investigate but do not expect any more arrests.
"From the information we have so far, the exchanges took place outside the village of Lake in the Hills," she said. "If we are able to identify who (paid to have sex with the girl) we will forward that information to the proper jurisdiction."
Knox previously was arrested by Schaumburg police on prostitution charges twice in one week in 2007, and then again in May by Arlington Heights police, who said she used the Internet site Craigslist to advertise for customers.
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<li><a href="/story/?id=352830">LITH cops arrest two for pimping teenage girl <span class="date">[01/21/10]</span></a></li>
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