Man Charged With Sex Trafficking While Incarcerated In County Jail
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Daniel David Ellington of Brooklyn Park was charged with four counts relating to sex trafficking at hotels in Woodbury and Brooklyn Center, the Washington County Attorney's Office said Thursday. The 38-year-old was charged with two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of promotion of prostitution.
The complaint says Ellington was incarcerated at the Kanabec County Jail for unrelated charges on April 2, 2019. While in jail, Ellington allegedly "advised, organized, promoted and profited from" a Woodbury victim's prostitution, the complaint said.
Daniel David Ellington (credit: Kanabec County Jail)
The victim told detectives she is a commercial sex worker and was not being trafficked, the complaint said. She also identified her boyfriend as Ellington, who texted her while he was incarcerated, the county attorney said.
The East Metro Sex Trafficking Task Force found thousands of text messages to her phone from Ellington, including messages about the commercial sex operation, narcotic transactions, and suspected ongoing fraudulent activity, the task force said. Ellington also allegedly instructed her to deposit large sums of money into his jail account to pay for texts, which totaled at least $890. The only phone calls Ellington made while in jail were to her, the complaint said.
Investigators say Ellington was involved with several additional instances of sex trafficking, which are pending investigations.
