One Year Ago Today (April 11, 2022)…Felony charges may be filed against a 31-year-old Desert Hot Springs man suspected of putting a teenager to work as a prostitute, sexually assaulting her and supplying the victim with drugs as part of a sex trafficking operation.
Cody Michael Hansen was arrested and booked into the Benoit Detention Center in Indio Thursday on suspicion of human trafficking, child abuse, forcible lewd acts on a minor, production of child pornography and related allegations.
Hansen is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
According to Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Jose Tijerina, the county’s Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force began an investigation of Hansen in Cabazon that culminated in findings that he had allegedly been sexually abusing the teen over an unspecified period of time.
Tijerina alleged that one of the alleged acts included “inducing the minor to consume narcotics,” which he identified as fentanyl.
Information regarding how the victim originally came into contact with the suspect, and what ultimately prompted the trafficking investigation, were not disclosed.
Details on Hansen’s background also were unavailable.
The eastern branch of the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force was founded in 2020 to focus on “cases that involve the commercial sex trafficking of children, as well as incidents of forced labor … or slavery” in the Coachella Valley, according to the sheriff’s department.