2 Men Arrested For Sex Trafficking Middle School Student
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Two men are in federal custody Thursday on sex trafficking charges involving a 13-year old girl.
Authorities say Shenandoah West Moneypenny, 34, of Gladewater and 43-year old Shawn Dale Sanders are each charged with one count of conspiracy to use, persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a Garland ISD student to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.
According to an affidavit filed in October 2017, a family member of the 13-year old girl contacted a Garland ISD resource officer after discovering conversations between the teen and adult men on the girl's computer.
The school resource officer reviewed both the girl's computer and phone and witnessed the communications between the victim and adult men.
During an interview with investigators, the teen disclosed that she had sexual contact with up to four adult men who she met online.
The victim told authorities during that same interview that she met a man named Aiden online, and he was the one that put her into contact with the men to meet up. Aiden, later identified as Moneypenny, set up Craigslist advertisements for men that wanted to meet the victim for sex.
Once Moneypenny deemed the responder to be safe, he would provide the teen with their contact information.
Authorities say, Sanders responded to one of the Craigslist ads and picked up the victim from middle school. Sanders then allegedly drove her to a local park and engaged with the teen in sexual activity. During this meeting, Sanders took explicit pictures of the victim and sent them to Moneypenny as a trade-off for setting the two up.
Sanders met up with the victim and engaged in sexual activity four times, authorities say.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Moneypenny received 219 replies to his Craigslist ad.
Moneypenny and Sanders both face more than 30 years in prison.
