A former bonding agent charged with human trafficking was in court Friday for a pre-trial in the case.
Dwight Jurgens is charged with four counts of aggravated human trafficking, two counts of attempting to commit aggravated human trafficking, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy. The human trafficking and aggravated counts are charged due to his authority of controlling persons because of his bonding business. He had worked for TNT bonding at the time of the initial arrest.
All four victims allege that they were threatened with being taken back to jail if they didn’t agree to have sex with him.
There was some confusion on a possible plea offer. The defendant thought the state would drop all the charges and he would face one count aggravated sexual battery. But, then he says he saw the written form of the offer and it showed six counts. Actually there were 8-counts altogether, that being 2-counts of attempted aggravated sexual battery, and 6-counts of aggravated sexual battery. In any case, he turned the offer down.
The judge set a trial date of September 24 and a motions deadline of August 23.