Bond was set at $55,000 for a man charged with promoting prostitution after an undercover hotel sting on the city’s Southwest Side on Wednesday.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Vice Unit conducted an undercover operation at a hotel in the Midway area Feb. 18 in response to an ad on Backpage.com, according to the sheriff’s office.
Officers learned that 24-year-old Troy Gardener had rented a hotel room for the purpose of prostitution, police said.
Police found a female victim, who was offered services through the sheriff’s Women’s Justice Program, according to the sheriff’s office.
Gardener, of the 7700 block of South Trumbull, had met the woman via Backpage and was profiting from her alleged prostitution in the room he rented, the sheriff’s office said.
He is charged with one felony count of promoting prostitution, the sheriff’s office said. A judge on Friday set his bond at $55,000, according to Cook County court records. He is next due in court on March 13.
The Vice Unit has made more than 750 arrests in connection with Backpage postings since 2009, the sheriff’s office said. Gardener is the Vice Unit’s 47th arrest since 2007 for involuntary servitude, human trafficking or promoting prostitution.
