Wichita woman charged with sex trafficking of a child with online photos of 17-year-old

The iPhone of a Wichita woman charged with sex trafficking of a child may contain evidence of continued involvement in sex crimes, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent said.

Kelly Lee Grounds, of Wichita, was indicted Jan. 28 in U.S. District Court on one count of sex trafficking of a minor. After she was charged by the federal grand jury, two related charges of aggravated human trafficking filed in October in Sedgwick County District Court were dismissed by prosecutors.

The local prosecutors had alleged that in September Grounds trafficked a 17-year-old who was to exchange sexual relations for compensation.

After Grounds was arrested by police in September, she was arrested again in January. An FBI agent on Wednesday was granted a federal search warrant for her phone, which she tried to throw away as she was arrested.

The agent wrote in the application for the warrant that the circumstances of the charge against Grounds involve her using a smartphone. She would use the phone to contact the child, take photos of the minor victim, post advertisement of the child and communicate with potential buyers of commercial sex acts involving the child.

Investigators determined that Grounds continued to post online prostitution advertisements after her initial arrest in September. Between October and January, she posted 89 ads for commercial sex acts on a pair of websites, the FBI agent wrote. The ads were for other people in additional to herself.

After Wichita police arrested Grounds last month, her phone displayed several notifications that appeared to detectives to be text messages from someone police know has engaged in prostitution, the FBI agent wrote.

The agent said he believes that Grounds’ iPhone likely contains evidence of her involvement in the sex trafficking of the child in the case that has already been charged. The phone might also contain evidence of continued sex crimes.

The phone’s data was extracted and copied on Friday, but court documents do not detail what was found.

This story was originally published February 9, 2020 at 12:23 PM.