Hammond, child prostitution, child pornography
A Hammond man already charged with prostituting a 15-year-old girl faces more federal charges related to a 14-year-old victim.
According to a third superseding indictment filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, Ronnie Cornell Cosby, 39, now faces 10 criminal charges, including three counts related to the new victim. An attorney for Cosby could not immediately be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
The indictment claims that Cosby transported the victim, identified only as Jane Doe 3, from Illinois to Indiana for prostitution from Dec. 15 to Dec. 31 He also produced and distributed child pornography using the girl during the same time period, according to the indictment.
Cosby was originally charged in February after a 15-year-old girl, identified only as Jane Doe 1, told Hammond police that she had stayed with Cosby and another woman for several days and that he acted as her pimp, selling her to at least 15 men for sex, according to court records. He kept all of the money and kept her high on marijuana, she told police.
He’s charged with six counts, including sex trafficking of children and producing child pornography, related to Jane Doe 1. He was later charged with one count of sex trafficking by fraud in relation to a third victim, Jane Doe 2. That crime is alleged to have happened in January, according to the indictment.
Cosby, who has been ordered held without bail in the case, has pleaded not guilty to the seven counts connected to Jane Does 1 and 2. A trial for those counts had been set for Sept. 21. An arraignment date for the new indictment had not been set by Friday afternoon, according to court records.