Somali sex trafficking trial delayed
A federal judge has delayed the start of a trial for more than a dozen people accused in a sex trafficking ring run by Somali gangs that reached from Minnesota to Tennessee.
Opening arguments were scheduled to start Monday, but over the weekend the U.S. attorney's office released to defense attorneys hundreds of pages of notes and hours of telephone recordings.
The case involves young girls being forced into prostitution in Minneapolis; St. Paul; Columbus, Ohio; and Nashville. Most of the defendants are from the Somali refugee populations in Minnesota and Tennessee.
The trial was pushed back one week to give the defense attorneys time to review the additional evidence.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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