East Providence Man, 19, Indicted on Child Sex Trafficking Charges

A 19-year-old East Providence man has been indicted on six counts of conspiracy, sex trafficking of a child and transportation of a minor, U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha announced Thursday.

Reginald ”Reggie” Chaney allegedly posted pictures of two teenage girls — age 15 and 16 respectively — taken inside an East Providence house and at a motel in Seekonk., Mass., on the Backpage.com website for the purposes of selling the girls for sex.

Chaney then arranged for meetings with men who responded to the ad with the underage girls at motels in Seekonk and in Providence, Warwick, Charlestown and Narragansett, according to court records.

A federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in Providence returned the six-count indictment on Wednesday.

Chaney was arrested by East Providence Police on Jan. 29 after an investigation conducted by Providence police with assistance from the department of Homeland Security.

Chaney is being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston as a probation violator on a 5-year-suspended sentence for a previous weapons charge.

An arraignment has not yet been scheduled.

If convicted, Chaney could face up to life in prison with a mandatory minimum of 15 years and fines of up to $250,000 for each individual count of sex trafficking.

According to a criminal complaint filed in January, Chaney came to the attention of police after the 16-year-old went to the hospital and a rape report was filed.

During the investigation, detectives learned that Chaney used a taser on the victims the night the girls were photographed in their underwear and “continually threatened to use the taser [on one of the victims] if she refused to do anything.”

Chaney reportedly collected anywhere from $60 to $250 for each sexual act he organized between the Johns using backpage.com and the underage girls.

In another instance, according to the complaint, a John in Charlestown “declared they appeared too young and asked them to leave,” giving the victim $60 for gas.

In another, one of the victims, after a night at the motel in Seekonk, was led to a car where another John was waiting in the back seat. When she refused to have sex, he reportedly held her arms against her side and raped her.

The John then paid Chaney the money and the victim told police that she believed the rape was brutal lesson planned by Chaney “in retribution for her unwillingness to perform sexual intercourse with his clients.”

The case is being prosecuted jointly in federal court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamela E. Chin and Assistant Rhode Island Attorney General Daniel Carr Guglielmo.