One of two men charged with sex trafficking after police raided an alleged brothel at 2874 West River Road in Sidney pleaded guilty Monday in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta.

Frederick Harry Horne Jr., 20, was fined $1,000 for the misdemeanor offense, which occurred April 10 in Sidney. His attorney, Darrick Banda, said afterward that he had no comment to make on the case.

Horne and his father, Frederick H. Horne Sr., were both charged after the raid in which a half-dozen women were found at the home, which allegedly was the site of Adam & Eve Escort Service. The raid on the home followed a two-year investigation by police and a spate of complaints by neighbors and an eviction by a previous landlord in North Belgrade. The women found at the home were not charged.

The elder Horne, now 47, is charged with three counts of sex trafficking, all between Feb. 10 and April 10 and one count each of unlawful possession of oxycodone and unlawful trafficking of marijuana, both April 10 in Winthrop. He has pleaded not guilty and those charges remain pending.

The morning after the raid, Horne Sr. said in an interview that what he was doing wasn’t wrong, and he denied that any of the women at the home were there against their will. He said Adam & Eve was a legitimate and legal escort service.

“These girls are like my family,” Horne said at the time, adding that 12 to 15 women had stayed at the house at various times.


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