KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — A 23-year-old woman has been charged with felony human trafficking and aggravated kidnapping, Knox County court records show.
Rachel Shearer was booked Wednesday morning.
She and another man allegedly met the victim in Baltimore in 2016 and brought her to Knoxville to work as a prostitute, according to court records. They posted the victim on Backpage, who said that she often turned "20 tricks a day" at hotels including the Super 8, America's Best, Quality Inn and Economy Inn in the Merchants Ave. area.
Wallace Memorial Church operates a daily daycare in the area, within 1000 feet of where the alleged prostitution took place.
The victim said in court records that Shearer and the man would lock the victim in a room and not allow her to leave.
The victim also said in those records that Shearer and the man allegedly made threats to harm her. The man, she said, would slap her and strike her with a glass bottle. The man was also known to have a gun, which the victim said she had seen.
Shearer allegedly would take all the money from the victim's prostitution, according to what the victim said in court records. When the victim tried to keep the money, Shearer would search the room and then take it.
Both Shearer and the man gave the victim drugs "as part of the ongoing human trafficking effort," the court records said.
Shearer is currently being held on a $200,000 bond for the human trafficking charge and a $150,000 bond for the aggravated kidnapping charge.
She is set to have at preliminary hearing on July 29, 2019 at 9 a.m.