Miami man booked on human trafficking count

Authorities are awaiting the extradition of a Miami man arrested Saturday for allegedly convincing someone he believed to be a teenage girl living in East Baton Rouge Parish to travel to Florida and work as a prostitute, an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

But instead of a teenage girl, Samuel Woodside, 45, of Miami, spoke this month and last month via the Internet and cellphone to an undercover East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy posing as a 14-year-old girl.

The deputy was working on an Internet crimes against children initiative, Casey Rayborn Hicks said.

During the same time frame, Woodside also sent the undercover deputy sexually explicit photos and invited the alleged teen to come to Miami and participate in sex acts with himself and others, Hicks said.

“He discussed with the girl on multiple occasions that she would be used to make money for him by performing sex acts with others,” Hicks said.

Woodside purchased a bus ticket for the undercover deputy from Baton Rouge to Miami, Hicks said. Woodside was arrested when he arrived at the Miami bus station to pick up the deputy.

Woodside was booked into Dade County Jail in Miami on one count each of human trafficking, traveling to meet a minor for unlawful sex, luring and enticing a minor to commit an unlawful act, interference with custody and sending harmful materials to a minor.

When extradited to East Baton Rouge Parish, Woodside will be booked on one count each of indecent behavior with a juvenile, human trafficking and computer-aided solicitation of a minor, Hicks said.