Worker for ICE accused of answering police sting ad, agreeing to pay for sex at Twin Cities hotel

A man who’s been doing background checks for ICE during the federal government’s immigration enforcement crackdown is charged with being among many people snared in a prostitution sting in Bloomington.

Brashad Antwaun Johnson, 36, of St. Michael, Minn., was charged on Feb. 17 in Hennepin County District Court with a gross misdemeanor count of trying to hire a woman for sex on Feb. 5.

Johnson was charged by summons and is due in court on March 5. Court records do not list an attorney for him. The Minnesota Star Tribune has reached out to Johnson for a response to the allegations.

Police Chief Booker Hodges said Johnson worked for the Defense Department doing security clearances for federal agencies.

“This is the most disturbing arrest that we’ve had here,” Hodges said at a news conference last week. “He is a backgrounder for ICE, Homeland Security and federal agencies. So when you’re getting your security clearance, this is one of the guys that does your backgrounds, which is kind of scary. So we locked him up. … I don’t think he’s going to be passing a background check no time soon.”

According to the criminal complaint:

Police placed sex-oriented decoy ads on a personals website. Johnson sent text messages to a phone number in one ad to an undercover officer offering to pay her $100 for sex.

“The undercover officer sent a confirmation code to the cellphone number the officer was communicating with,” the complaint read, “and the confirmation code appears on the cellphone that was recovered in [Johnson’s] possession.”

In November, a Twin Cities-based ICE civilian employee was arrested in an underage sex sting operation by Bloomington police.