Man charged with sex trafficking after being caught making jail phone calls

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (KMSP) - A Minneapolis man was charged with promoting prostitution Wednesday after he was found to be contacting a female victim from jail.

Albert Lacey Wilson, 52, is now charged with the sex trafficking offense.

"The prostitution world is a distant world for most of us who believe in people and people's rights," said Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. 

According to the criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court, authorities met with a confidential informant who identified a number of people involved in commercial sex, including Wilson.

Wilson was in custody for being a felon in possession of a gun so they obtained his jail calls and found out he was contacting a female victim.

In one call, Wilson asked for money and the victim stated she had not had sex that day. In another call, Wilson demanded the victim give him money she earned in the form of a gift card.

"He gets on the phone and he starts talking to this woman about, 'don't do this for yourself, do it for me,' which is pretty offensive," Freeman said of the phone conversations. 

Officers met with the informant another time after listening to the calls. The informant said the victim was Wilson’s “main girl.”

Wilson is in custody and is due in court Thursday.  

"What I think is more amazing is that these guys are so stupid to use a jail phone to talk about this stuff," Freeman said Wilson's actions. 

"Guys like this guy, exploiting women, exploiting people, and it shouldn't be like that," Freeman added. 

Freeman said cases like these are upsetting to prosecutors and offensive to the standards they hold. 

"Most of us men don't want our wives, daughters, our mothers, women we know, to be exploited like this," he said. "She was being exploited and this guy deserves prison time for that."