Former Lexington accountant pleads guilty in sex ring that victimized drug addicts
A former Kentucky accountant admitted taking part in a conspiracy that victimized drug-addicted women for sex.
Mark J. Milslagle, 50, of Lexington, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in London to a charge of conspiring to take part in human trafficking.
If U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom accepts the plea as recommended, Milslagle will be sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison, followed by 15 years under court supervision, according to a copy of the agreement.
Milslagle took part in a prostitution-and-drug ring that showed the desperate lengths young women would go to in order to get heroin and opioid pills such as oxycodone.
He was involved with Logan Ray Towery, a drug dealer who lived in Laurel County and headed the conspiracy.
Towery admitted that from September 2015 until October 2019, when he was arrested by federal authorities, he used drugs to entice and coerce female drug addicts to take part in sex acts with him, according to his plea agreement.
Towery, who got pills from sources in Lexington and Detroit, often threatened to withhold drugs from women so that they would engage in sex acts in order to get pills and avoid painful withdrawal symptoms, according to his plea agreement.
“Often the victims who were required to perform sexual favors for controlled substances showed physical and mental symptoms of withdrawal or being ‘dope sick’ in the defendant’s words,” Towery’s plea said. “The defendant knew the victims would become physically ill and emotionally distressed if they did not obtain controlled substances.”
Towery also gave women pills without charge until they were addicted. When they got deep enough in debt to him, he would have them engage in prostitution with other men to pay their bill and keep getting pills, according to his plea.
He provided addicted prostitutes to Milslagle, delivering them to him at motels in London or Corbin, according to court records.
Towery said Milslagle was his biggest customer, according to an affidavit from Todd E. Tremaine, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who investigated the case.
Towery once operated his prostitution through a website, but then worked with Milslagle and other men directly after authorities shut down the site in 2015.
Towery said Milslagle paid him $100 for each woman he delivered, and also paid for drugs for the women, according to Tremaine’s statement.
Milslagle acknowledged he also helped recruit a young woman into the prostitution scheme.
Milslagle and another person in the conspiracy gathered information on the unnamed victim while she was at a substance abuse treatment center.
When she got out, Milslagle paid for her access to heroin and other drugs in exchange for her engaging in sex acts with him and others, according to his plea deal.
Milslagle knew the woman was an addict and would get sick if she didn’t get drugs. He made payments on her drug debt and financed unspecified “other aspects of the human sex trafficking” of the victim, his plea said.
The human-trafficking conspiracy involved illegal acts in Fayette, Laurel, Knox, Whitley, Madison and Rockcastle counties, according to court records.
Six other people were charged with Towery and Mislagle.
Towery has not been sentenced. If Boom accepts the plea deal he worked out, his sentence will be 12 years and six months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervision.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 10:42 AM.
