Man could go free in prostitution case

Plea deal in the works would mean time served for coercing blind woman with disability

A Hammond man could get time served after admitting he forced a blind woman with a mental disability into prostitution.

Stefon Collins, 25, pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution, a level 5 felony, according to a plea agreement filed Monday.

A judge would need to accept it, but the plea calls for one year in Lake County Jail, which boils down to an agreed time-served sentence. His sentencing hearing is set for May 23.

Authorities accused him of using the dating app Tagged to lure a woman into prostitution, according to a criminal affidavit.

A police officer who interviewed the victim last year on May 20 wrote that she is blind and “appears to have some sort of mental disability,” a court document said.

The woman told police after she moved in with Collins a year earlier, he made an account on the dating app Tagged where he would charge $50 each for men to have sex with her, the affidavit states. He told her to go with men “because he wanted her to make friends,” it said.

She repeatedly told men no, the probable cause affidavit states. One man tried to have sex with her even after she rebuffed his advances. Collins raped her “because he wouldn’t take no for an answer,” according to charges.

The woman said she saw as many as five men per day, charges allege. She overheard Collins haggle with a man who offered $40 for her when he wanted $50, it states.

Men who paid Collins took the woman to Hammond, Gary and Calumet City, Illinois, for sex, she told police. Some kept her overnight and forced her to have sex multiple times.

He was originally charged with promotion of human sexual trafficking and promoting prostitution.