Written by
St. Cloud Times
MINNEAPOLIS -- Hennepin County has charged a man with eight counts of prostitution in a case that originated in St. Cloud.
Akmal Saleem Karon, who is 30, was charged with prostituting young girls in an investigation that began in 2010, the Hennepin County Attorney's office said today. Karon has no know address. He appeared in Hennepin County District Court Wednesday. Karon was charged with eight counts of solicitation, inducement of prostitution and promotion of prostitution involved two years. Bail was set at $200,000.
St. Cloud police first discovered one of the young prostitutes at The Best Western Americanna Inn, 520 U.S. Highway 10. A delivery person reported seeing a bruised girl in the room with an older man, the criminal complaint said.
Police identified Karon. The girl, who was 16, told police she was staying with him for two weeks and not having sex. Police returned her to Minneapolis as a runaway.
A hotel manager in Richfield on Aug. 4, 2010, spotted that same 16-year-old girl and told police. She said she was there to see a man in one of the rooms. The man told police he found her through Backpage.com. The girl admitted she was a prostitute and refused to say anything more, the complaint said.
Police got a search warrant for the girl's phone and found numerous calls between her and Karon.
Investigators in Richfield used a search warrant for Backpage.com and found the girl's ad an Karon's phone number as the contact. The ads were placed in St. Cloud, Minneapolis and Duluth from the email address ppimpin1.com.
In October of 2010, The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation set up an undercover prostitution date with the 16-year-old in St. Cloud. The investigation revealed the girl stayed at the Best Western 80 times in the previous year.
The complaint also says the defendant took the girl to a Motel 6 in St. Cloud. She told authorities that Karon forced her to prostitute herself for several days, supplied her condoms and kept all the money.
She was arrested when police saw Karon drive by. He was stopped for driving with a suspended license. His cellphone revealed photos with him and several other young girls.
The girl told investigators that she first met Karon when she was 15. He explained to her what to tell customers and how to check for undercover police. Karon set up the ad and collected all the money. She said he beat her and burned her with a cigar, according to the complaint.
St. Paul Police were contacted on Jan. 20, 2011, about a 14-year-old girl who reported that Karon had taken her to a St. Paul apartment and beat her, held her captive and forced her into prostitution as a Roseville Motel. She eventually escaped, according to the complaint.
Hennepin County has charged a man with eight counts of prostitution in a case that began in St. Cloud.
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