KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A woman charged in connection to a teen sex slave case pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday.
The Associated Press reports that Marilyn Bagley, 47, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking in exchange for prosecutors dropping all other charges against her and recommending probation.
She admitted that she, along with five other men including her husband, held a teenage girl as a bondage sex slave in their Lebanon, Missouri, mobile home for years.
James Noel, Michael Stokes and Dennis Henry have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and are awaiting sentencing in connection to the case. A fourth man – Bradley Cook – pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and is expected to be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The men admitted that they watched or took part in the sexual torture of the victim in exchange for money, cigarettes, clothing and other items.
Marilyn Bagley’s husband, 45-year Ed Bagley, faces 11 counts including sex trafficking, fraud, forced labor and conspiracy. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole.
Ed Bagley is also alleged to have forced the victim to work as a stripper, keeping her earnings and physically and sexually torturing her when she didn’t earn enough money.
The investigation into the case began in early 2009 after the victim – who prosecutors say was a mentally-deficient runaway who was recruited by the couple when she was just 16 – was hospitalized for cardiac arrest following an alleged sex torture session that included suffocation and electrocution.
The couple had argued that the sex acts – which they say began after the victim turned 18 – were consensual parts of their bondage and sado-masochistic lifestyle, and the victim was a willing participant.
