Kirkwood Man to Change Plea in Sex-Trafficking Case

Bradley Cook, a Kirkwood man who is among a group of six people accused of sex trafficking, is set to change his not-guilty plea, according to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Bradley and the other five people were indicted on March 30 by a federal grand jury on charges that the group had abused a mentally deficient woman in the town of Lebanon, according to an FBI press release. The indictment alleges that the woman was sexually abused and tortured for several years and forced to work as an exotic dancer at local strip clubs.

Cook faces seven federal counts in federal court in Missouri's western district, five of which said he tried to kill his accuser from prison through a hit man, according to the Associated Press account in the Post-Dispatch. Two of the other people accused in the case have pleaded guilty to charges of committing sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.

Prosecutors also alleged in court documents that Cook tried to hire someone to kill Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Cordes, the prosecutor of the case. A U.S. Magistrate, however, ruled that evidence of the plot against Cordes could not be presented at Cook's trial unless the prosecutor removed herself, the Post-Dispatch reports.

According to the Post-Dispatch, Cordes responded she would not present the evidence of the alleged plot to kill her and that she would continue to handle the case.

See the attached court document in the PDF section of this article for more information on the case.