A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

Chicago Sex Trafficker Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Prostituting Underage Girls

CHICAGO — A West Side man who forcefully recruited three underage girls into the commercial sex trade and then profited from their activities was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison.

ARNELL CHASE MISHER, 31, of Chicago, enticed three girls – ages 13, 16 and 17 – to engage in sex acts for money during the summer of 2012.

Misher admitted in a plea agreement that he helped to prepare an online advertisement on Backpage.com that featured explicit photographs of the 17-year-old, and that he personally accompanied the 13-year-old to the “track,” an area known for prostitution.

Misher would wait near the “track” and have the girl deliver to him all of the proceeds she made from her sexual encounters with adult men.

U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber sentenced Misher to 120 months in prison, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release.

“The seriousness of the defendant’s crime cannot be overstated,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher V. Parente. “The damage that has been done to these minor children will never, and can never, be undone.”

Misher and a co-defendant, BRAUNDII YOUNG, 23, of Chicago, each pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. Judge Leinenweber scheduled Young’s sentencing hearing for Aug. 27, 2015.

Zachary Fardon

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which targets commercial sexual exploitation of children as part of an effort known as the Innocence Lost National Initiative. In Chicago, the CETF is comprised of special agents from the FBI and investigators from the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. The Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force assisted in the investigation.
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he government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher V. Parente.