US man pimping wife for sex on craigslist charged with felony

Chicago, Mar 18 (ANI): A Minnesota man, who is said to have pimped his wife for sex on craigslist, has been charged with a felony after he was arrested at a downtown Chicago Hotel.

Clinton Danner, 32, of Rockford, Minn., has been accused of forcing his wife to have sex with strangers at locations across the country, including a downtown Chicago Hotel, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

Prosecutors revealed that Cook County Sheriff's Police arrested him on March 14 as he arrived to pick up his wife from a downtown Holiday Inn where he made her stay for the weekend.

Though he'd planned for her to fly home on March 15, he called to tell her he was disappointed by how little money she'd made over the weekend and was personally driving to Chicago to confront her.

Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Erin Antonietti told Judge Donald Panarese during a brief hearing at the Cook County criminal court that fearing for her life, Danner's wife secretly called the Polaris national sex trafficking hotline.

Danner, who's charged with felony pandering, wore plaid shorts in court on March 17, and he was ordered held on 150,000 dollars bail.

Antonietti revealed that he had pimped his wife out since she became pregnant four years ago.

He initially forced her to have sex with strangers in Minnesota, but over the last six months "branched out," sending her to New York, Georgia, Washington D.C. and Illinois.

He'd often travel with her and their 3-year-old daughter, living out of a van while she was forced to prostitute herself, and as she did not have a credit card or access to a bank account, Danner controlled her.

Danner met his wife five years ago, when she was 17 and he was a 27-year-old church youth counsellor.

By then, Danner already had a string of felony convictions in Minnesota, including two burglary convictions in 1996, a 1996 lottery fraud conviction and a 2002 drug conviction.

Records showed Danner had paid for his wife to fly to Chicago and for her hotel stay. He gave a written statement following his arrest.

According to a release from the Sheriff's office, investigators followed Danner from Florida, where he'd forced his wife to work last week.

The victim was initially apprehensive, but came around to working with the Sheriff's Department of Women's Justice Services, which has former prostitutes among it's staff.

She told investigators Danner regularly threatened to take her child away from her or harm the child if she didn't prostitute herself on his behalf, and he never allowed her to be left alone with the child while she was trafficked in eight states.

When he was arrested, the child he brought with him was turned over to the victim. Both the victim and child were placed in safe housing, police said.

Dart, who filed a federal lawsuit against craigslist over prostitution ads, plans to notify the Web site owners of this latest arrest.

That lawsuit was dismissed last year after craigslist agreed to review every ad for illegal content before it is posted. (ANI)