Las Vegas man charged with sex trafficking after girl detained

A Las Vegas man has been charged with trafficking a girl for the purpose of prostitution, court and police records show.

Vaseon Robertson, 22, was booked April 9 into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of first-degree kidnapping, living from the earnings of a prostitute, child abuse or neglect, and sex trafficking of a child under 18.

An arrest report for Robertson, obtained Thursday, states that he was arrested by a Las Vegas officer working on an FBI task force created to combat sex trafficking.

Police said in the report that on Dec. 21 investigators conducted an undercover operation targeting prostitution in the area of Maryland Parkway and Katie Avenue. During the investigation, they detained a female juvenile who said she was working as a prostitute.

The girl, whose age was not disclosed in the arrest report, said she already had been working as a prostitute when she met Robertson through Facebook and that it “just happened” that she started working for him, giving him some of the money she earned from prostitution, according to the report.

“Vaseon Robertson had certain rules he gave Victim 1 to follow while she was working as a prostitute for him,” police said. “Some of the rules included not talking to other pimps and always checking to see if the client is a police officer. Vaseon Robertson never told Victim 1 how much she had to make every night and would only take ‘some’ of her money.”

The girl said Robertson would drive her to and from “dates.” Acts of prostitution were solicited through website postings. Police analyzed the girl’s Facebook account and identified Robertson as a suspect with “facial recognition technology” used by the Las Vegas police technical operations section, according to the arrest report.

Authorities filed a criminal complaint against Robertson on April 13. District Court records show that he has prior felony convictions for attempted possession of stolen property, burglary and conspiracy in Clark County.

Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.