Reality TV figure facing sex trafficking charge in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A rapper and former reality TV figure is facing a felony sex trafficking charge in Las Vegas in an ongoing criminal investigation alleging that he used his large social media following to recruit women as prostitutes, according to police.

Records showed Wednesday that Kevin Lamont Barnes Jr., 37, was arrested Monday and released Tuesday without bail from the Clark County Detention Center pending a preliminary hearing of evidence May 10.

Barnes, who uses the name Chopper and was featured on the early 2000’s MTV reality series “Making the Band,” was represented in court by a public defender. It was not immediately clear later if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Details of the investigation were not immediately made public by police or prosecutors.

The celebrity website TMZ said it obtained documents showing that an undercover vice detective posing as a sex worker said Barnes used social media to tell the person to travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, to become part of his “team.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that after his MTV stint, Barnes became a member of the hip-hop group Da Band, formed by Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.