Arrests made in forced child prostitution case

(Lexington) January 28, 2007 - Lexington County Sheriff's Department detectives on Sunday charged three men with having sex with a girl, now 15, whose mother forced the girl to work as a prostitute in order to provide money to finance the mother's crack cocaine habit.

Lexington County Sheriff James R. Metts said detectives arrested Jim Louis Finley, 28, Jeremy Joe Futch, 29, and Michael Eugene Roscoe, 31, all of Lexington. Finley, Futch and Roscoe all were charged with one count each of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and criminal solicitation of a minor.

All men are being held at the Lexington County Detention Center. Bond hearings have not yet been scheduled.

Arrest warrants that were served on Finley and Futch allege the men each paid the 15-year-old girl's mother $60 in cash in exchange for the girl performing oral sex on them in January of 2007 at the mother's home near Lexington, Metts said.

Roscoe's arrest warrant alleges he paid the mother an undetermined amount of cash in exchange for having sex with the 15-year-old girl between October 1 and October 31, 2006 at a home near Lexington, Metts said.

Detectives previously charged the girl's mother with promoting prostitution involving a minor, unlawful neglect of a child and permitting a child to engage in an obscene act. The woman was being held on Sunday at the Lexington County Detention Center on $60,000 bail.

Metts said the case remains under investigation, and the sheriff said that detectives might file additional charges. Charges are pending in connection with the solicitation of sex from the 17-year-old girl.

Metts said he will not identify the girls' mother in order to protect the identity of her two daughters, who are minors. South Carolina law prohibits law enforcement from releasing information to the public that could identify children and sexual assault victims.

Detectives took the 15-year-old girl into emergency protective custody after they arrested the girl's mother at about 7:15pm on Friday, Metts said. The girl was placed in the custody of the South Carolina Department of Social Services.

The woman forced her daughters to engage in sexual intercourse and perform other sexual acts with men in exchange for money that the woman kept and later used to buy crack cocaine, Metts said.

The woman first forced her 17-year-old daughter to engage in prostitution in May 2002, and the girl continued to work as a prostitute at her mother's direction until the summer of 2006, when she moved out of her mother's home, Metts said. The woman first forced her youngest daughter to work as a prostitute in the summer of 2006.

Metts asked anyone with information  to call the Lexington County Sheriff's Department at (803) 785-8230 or CrimeStoppers at 1-888-559-TIPS. Citizens also can anonymously provide information online by accessing the crime tip link on the Sheriff's Department web site at http://www.lexingtonsheriff.com.

Updated 9:15pm by Logan Smith