A man was arrested at a Missoula motel on suspicion of aiding sex trafficking over the weekend.
Brian I. Ward, 66, is facing two felony sex trafficking charges. Ward, a Wyoming resident, is at the Missoula jail on $25,000 bail. He hasn’t entered a plea to the charges.
On Friday, Missoula police officers were dispatched to a motel on Expo Parkway. A 911 call from motel staff reported two guests were possibly involved in sex trafficking. Motel staff noticed a fair amount of foot traffic in and out of the room rented by an older white man, suspected to be Ward, and a younger woman, according to Missoula County charging documents.
Surveillance footage showed four different men going into the room at different times. In each instance, Ward was seen leaving the room and sitting in his car while the men stayed in the room. The woman was never seen leaving the room.
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Law enforcement identified Ward through his license plate and information from Wyoming authorities. A search warrant on the room returned items consistent with sex trafficking, including portable electronic devices, sexual paraphernalia and forms of U.S. currency, charging documents stated.
Staff said they searched the database of the motel company, and Ward was flagged as a “trafficking suspect” at a motel location in Michigan.
Officers took Ward and the woman with him to separate locations for interviews.
The woman with Ward reported she didn’t believe she was a human trafficking victim, according to charging documents. An advocate from the YWCA also responded.
The woman reported that she and Ward arrived in Missoula on Wednesday, April 10, and had met each other in Billings. She said the two had been to Missoula together previously, and he had also taken her to North Dakota, according to the case affidavit.
Ward was vague at first when officers asked him about how he and the woman met, according to charging documents, but eventually told officers they met in Billings about a year ago via an ad for paid sex.
They’ve known each other since, Ward reportedly stated, and he drives her from city to city where they stay a few days before leaving because the woman doesn’t have a valid driver’s license. The two were in Missoula for three days, he said, and Bozeman and Dickinson, North Dakota prior to that. Ward paid for hotel rooms, and the woman would reimburse him. According to court documents, Ward benefited financially from the hotel rooms and said the woman wouldn’t be able to engage in sex work.
Whitney Bennett, public information officer for the Missoula Police Department, said the department’s investigation is still ongoing.