Man charged with sex trafficking women at Lombard hotel

Pretrial release was denied on Friday for a Chicago man charged with trafficking young women into prostitution at a Lombard hotel.

Heggie Carr, 47, of the 7000 block of South Cregier Avenue, is charged with two counts of involuntary servitude and two counts of trafficking in persons for labor, according to a news release from the DuPage County state's attorney's office.

Illinois State Police received information in September alleging an 18-year-old woman was being trafficked. It is alleged Carr placed online ads offering sexual encounters with women. There were several locations, including the hotel.

On Wednesday, undercover police arranged an appointment for sexual services with two women. Carr was present at the appointments and was arrested.

Police allege he forced the women into prostitution every day, threatened the lives of the women and their relatives if they did not do as they were told, and beat at least one of the women daily.

He told the women to have sex for money and then give him all the proceeds, according to the news release.

According to the petition for detention, Carr was on parole for a 2011 Cook County conviction of involuntary servitude and aggravated domestic battery.

The petition also alleges that Carr met one of the victims when she was staying with her mother and sister at a hotel and that Carr offered her a job doing office work in exchange for paying for her family's hotel bill.

Instead, the victim took calls to arrange appointments for several other women to have sex for money and eventually was forced into the sexual encounters. According to the petition, Carr required the women to earn $3,000 on weekdays and $5,000 on weekend days. The petition alleges that Carr forced the women to take drugs, including heroin, and that one of the women died of an overdose in June. The petition alleges Carr placed thousands of advertisements.

One of the victims told workers at a shelter about what had happened to her, according to the petition.

"The charges against Mr. Carr are, in a word, appalling," DuPage State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in the release. "The alleged exploitation of these young victims, who were forced into the sex trade and trapped there by the use of deadly threats, should send a chill down the spine of each and every one of us."