Two men accused of sex trafficking on Craigslist

Federal authorities on Thursday charged two people with using Craigslist.com to lure men to have sex with a 17-year-old girl at an Atlanta hotel.

On Feb. 20, Marvis Harris took nude photos of the girl and uploaded them onto the free Web-based classified advertising service, saying she would engage in erotic services and falsely claiming she was 19, authorities said.

Within 30 minutes, Harris and co-defendant Lawrence Edward Pruitt began receiving calls from the ad. Over the next two days, they had the girl work as a prostitute for more than a dozen men, prosecutors said.

The girl, whose identity was not disclosed, cooperated with the FBI investigation. She said that Pruitt, 26, of Central Islip, N.Y., and Harris, 26, of Columbia, S.C., knew she was 17 but instructed her to tell her customers she was 19, authorities said. Pruitt and Harris kept all the money the girl earned from prostitution for themselves, according to court records.

Pruitt and Harris stand indicted for conspiring sex trafficking of a minor. They appeared before a federal judge Thursday.