BRANSON MO NEWS: Justin Beard, 33, of Branson, Mo., was charged Thursday, Feb. 1, with two counts of offering or agreeing to hire a prostitute under the age of 16, according to a criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court. He is in custody and is expected to make his first appearance in court on Friday.On Tuesday, Beard responded to a sex ad on Craigslist, which was placed by a joint sex-trafficking task force comprising several metro law enforcement agencies, the complaint said.Beard exchanged several text messages with an undercover officer posing as a man trafficking a 13-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl, eventually agreeing to trade a pair of tickets to a Super Bowl Live event for sex with the teens, according to the complaint. The tickets were valued at roughly $200.When Beard arrived at the address given to him by the undercover officer, he was arrested, the complaint said.Beard later admitted to investigators that he made arrangements to have sex with the teens, according to the complaint.Authorities say that as the Twin Cities prepare to host Super Bowl LII on Sunday, planning has long been underway to address any accompanying uptick in prostitution or sex trafficking.
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