Sting leads to sex trafficking charges

A man has been charged with facilitating sex trafficking after an undercover vice sting on the Strip caught a suspected prostitute trying to steal $3,000 cash from a detective, police say.

Brent Keith Rodgers, 36, was booked at the Clark County Detention Center on Sunday. He was arrested after a Metropolitan Police Department detective posed as a customer trying to hire a woman for an act of prostitution at 11:36 p.m. Saturday. The woman agreed to go to the detective’s hotel room on the Strip and engage in sex for $500, an arrest report for Rodgers states.

Once the woman entered the room, the detective pulled out the cash and put it in a dresser drawer before briefly leaving the room. Police said surveillance video showed the woman grabbing the money while making a phone call, then fleeing. She was quickly taken into custody by officers waiting outside and the cash was recovered from her purse, police said.

Police arrested Rodgers in the hotel after examining the woman’s phone. Rodgers denied he was the woman’s pimp, saying she was a model and he thought she was going to the hotel room to get her photos taken.

Rodgers is charged in Las Vegas Justice Court with pandering, facilitating sex trafficking of a victim over 18, conspiracy to commit theft, and theft of $1,200 or more. Clark County prosecutors declined to file a felony charge of conspiracy to commit grand larceny against Rodgers.

The woman also was arrested but police redacted her name in Rodgers’ arrest report for unknown reasons. It is not clear if she faces theft or other charges in connection with the incident.

Rodgers is scheduled to be back in court on Dec. 30.