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Peoria Police Linked to Prostitution Operation

PAAR
/
Facebook via Creative Commons

A newspaper report says a man who's serving 15 years in prison for running an underage prostitution operation did so out of an apartment obtained with the help of the Peoria Police Department. The Peoria Journal Star reports Matthew Petrakis had been in close contact with the police department for months before his May 2015 arrest on prostitution-related charges. Documents acquired by the newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act show that the department's "Don't Shoot" initiative in September 2014 helped Petrakis obtain the apartment where up to six men a day paid to have sex with a 16-year-old girl. Petrakis was convicted in November of involuntary sexual servitude of a minor and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.