A 19-year Burnsville man has been charged with forcing a woman who was pregnant with his child into prostitution.
The woman, identified in court documents only with initials, told police that Javed M. Mobin beat her, choked her until she almost passed out and threatened to kill her if she went to police or "did business" behind his back.
Mobin has been charged in Dakota County District Court with solicitation of prostitution and domestic assault by strangulation. Both are felonies.
According to the criminal complaint, Burnsville police encountered the woman at a Burnsville motel after seeing ads in the "escort" section of the website Backpage.com. Investigators were concerned about her safety because she appeared in photos to be pregnant and under the influence of drugs.
Officers tracked a phone number in the ads to Mobin, and an undercover officer arranged to meet the woman on Jan. 11. The woman, who said she was seven months pregnant with Mobin's child, told police that four or five days earlier Mobin had slammed her head into a wall, then choked her until she almost passed out. She said Mobin had been prostituting her since July 2011 and had threatened to kill her several times.
Burnsville police spokesman Sgt. Rory Bochniak said the woman was not arrested or charged in connection with the incident. He said police had contact with Mobin when he was a juvenile. Mobin is being held in the Dakota County jail in lieu of $70,000 bail. His next court appearance is Feb. 14.
Pat Pheifer • 952-746-3284
