HAMMOND, Illinois- — [www.suntimes.com]- Federal prosecutors allege three Hammond men are violent pimps who recruited teenage girls at shopping malls for their “modeling” business, then forced them to have sex for money.

U.S. Judge Paul Cherry on Friday ruled that Justin “Toot” Cephus, his brother, Stanton Cephus and their cousin, Jovan “Geo” Stewart, will remain in jail while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and trafficking minors for sex, bringing young girls across state lines to meet with clients across the Chicago area. All three men entered not-guilty pleas to the charges this week.

Justin Cephus, the only defendant to oppose prosecutors’ motions to keep him in prison before trial, scowled and shook his head as Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Trumbull-Harris [pictured] laid out evidence she said shows Cephus and Stewart brutally beat the girls he employed at his Beauty Escort Service, forcing them into the sex trade and intimidating them if they tried to back out.

“This is a very violent individual who seem to enjoy punishing and inflicting pain on women,” Trumbull-Harris said.

Justin Cephus and Stewart recruited teenage girls by passing out business cards for “Beautyful Entertainment” at the River Oaks Mall in Calumet City, Ill. Girls were told the business was modeling or “promotions,” but the number on the business cards was the same as the one in a Yellow Pages listing for “Beauty Escorts,” an alleged call girl service raided by Cook County Sheriff’s Police and the FBI following a sting operation in Lansing, Ill.

An undercover agent who called Beauty Escorts set up a rendezvous in Lansing with two prostitutes, who were paid $350 each for sex. Stanton Cephus, who drove the girls to the hotel, was arrested and allegedly told investigators his brother ran a prostitution business out of a home in Hammond, where police found bags holding dozens of condoms, women’s cosmetics, business cards, a list of prices for different categories of prostitutes and addresses for clients.

Trumbull-Harris also read statements from young women who claim they were recruited to work as prostitutes and were beaten by Justin Cephus or Jovan Stewart. One girl was 16 when she began working as a prostitute in 2007, and said she was frightened the defendants would be released.

“I’ve seen things with them that will scar me for the rest of my life,” she wrote in a motion filed by prosecutors.

Cephus’ attorney argued that the evidence provided by prosecutors did not link his client to the crimes specifically alleged in the charges.