CHICAGO _ A veteran Chicago police officer has been arrested on federal criminal charges of sex trafficking a 14-year-old girl.
Officer William Whitley was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday with one count each of sex trafficking of a minor and production of child pornography.
Whitley, 60, a 26-year veteran of the Police Department, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and as much as life imprisonment if convicted of the trafficking count, prosecutors said.
Whitley was arrested Tuesday afternoon and appeared in court Wednesday morning dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit.
He answered, "Yes, your honor," when U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez asked if he understood the charges but otherwise did not speak in court.
After prosecutors raised concerns he could flee if released from custody, Valdez ordered him held without bond pending a detention hearing at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago next week.
The Chicago Tribune first reported on the investigation of the officer more than a year ago.
Whitley, who for years worked as a patrol officer in the Wentworth District on the city's South Side, was stripped of his police powers in September 2015 because of the probe. He had been assigned to paid desk duty.
