METRO POLICE
William Hoard
Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018 | 6:40 p.m.
Promising easy money and physical protection, a man recruited underage girls via social media and subsequently sold them for sex, according to Metro Police.
That suspect, William Hoard, was arrested this week by Metro and the FBI. Authorities believe there could be more victims they have not identified.
Clark County District Court records show Hoard, 24, was on probation for a suspended prison sentence in a similar case in 2016.
From January to June this year, Hoard would contact the victims on social media, later promising them money and protection from harm, police said. He would then arrange dates for them, driving them to meet customers who would pay for sex.
Hoard would then take the victims' money, police said. The youngest victim was 15.
On Wednesday, a task force that comprises Metro officers and FBI agents took him into custody on a variety of sex trafficking-related charges, police said.
Hoard is being held at the Clark County Detention Center on four counts each of kidnapping and child abuse; three counts of sex trafficking a child under 18, and one count of sex trafficking a child under 16, records show.
Prosecutors dropped two counts of accepting or receiving earnings of a prostitute.
This apparently wasn’t the first time Hoard was linked to a trafficking case involving minors, court records show. Two years ago, he and two other suspects were arrested on 11 felony counts in a underage sex trafficking case.
But in October 2017, Hoard pleaded guilty to one count each of pandering and attempted pandering, records show.
A prison sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation no longer than four years, records show. An arrest warrant for violating those terms was issued in July and cleared when he was again placed in handcuffs.
Anyone with further information is asked to call police at 702-828-3455. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or crimesstoppersofnv.com.
