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BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — A former Vermont state worker has been sentenced to six months of home detention for his role in a scheme to bring women from New York City to Vermont to engage in prostitution with farm workers.

Alex Young-Hernandez was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Brattleboro.

The 56-year-old worked as a case aide for the Department of Children and Family Services for 10 years at the time of his arrest, The Burlington Free Press reported.

Young-Hernandez said he learned about the prostitution operation in October 2010 from Jose Flores-Rocha at a trailer in northern Vermont where Young-Hernandez lived with several farm workers, according to court records.

“Flores-Rocha had brought a woman to his trailer to engage in sexual acts with at least one of Young-Hernandez’s roommates, who worked at a nearby farm. Flores-Rocha asked Young-Hernandez to provide numbers and names for farmer workers that might be interested in prostitution services. Young-Hernandez agreed,” said a sentencing memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Ross.

Flores-Rocha was arrested six months later by Border Patrol agents. A woman traveling with him said he had taken her to three farms on March 15, 2011, to provide sexual services to farm workers, court records said.

When Flores-Rocha was arrested, he had Young-Hernandez’s business card and three text messages from Young-Hernandez on his cellphone listing addresses of farms where workers were interested in receiving sexual services, the sentencing memorandum said.

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