TAYLOR, Mich. [Associated Press]– A 33-year-old woman was arraigned Sunday on charges alleging she offered to let an undercover investigator take pornographic photos of her 7-year-old daughter and have sex with the girl, authorities said.
The woman was arrested Friday after taking the girl to a hotel in Romulus, near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, where she had agreed to meet the investigator, the Wayne County sheriff’s department said.
A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of the woman, who wasn’t represented by a lawyer at the arraignment, department spokesman John Roach said. She was held in lieu of $1 million bail, and a preliminary examination was scheduled for April 12.
Authorities said the woman offered to let the investigator take the photos for a fee and, when she met with him, discussed being paid in exchange for sex with the child, the Detroit Free Press reported.
“This is truly a horrifying case,” Sheriff Warren Evans said in a statement. “To think that a woman would offer up her own daughter in this way impossible to comprehend.”
The girl and her four siblings, ages 12, 11, 9 and 6, all were in protective custody, Roach said.
The name of the woman, who lives in this Detroit suburb, wasn’t being released to avoid identifying the child, the sheriff’s department said.
She faced five charges, including child sexually abusive behavior, illegal use of the Internet for child sexually abusive actions or materials and distribution of child sexually abusive material, Roach said.
She also was charged with prostitution, since the department said she propositioned the investigator herself. The department said the woman advertised herself online as a prostitute.
If convicted, she could get up 20 years in prison.