Former U. of Arizona Player Charged With Sex Trafficking

PHOENIX — Mikal Smith, the former University of Arizona football player and son of University of Illinois coach Lovie Smith, was arrested in August on multiple charges, including sex trafficking, the attorney general announced Thursday.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced in a tweet that a grand jury had indicted Smith, who lived in Chandler, in connection with an Arizona prostitution ring. He was indicted on charges of conspiracy, illegally conducting an enterprise, money laundering in the first degree, pandering, receiving earnings of a prostitute, sex trafficking and threatening or intimidating.

"Smith is accused of using constant surveillance and threats of retaliation to keep the victim under his control," according to Brnovich.

According to the indictment, Smith and his co-defendant Aprel Mae Rasmussen are accused of operating and maintaining a prostitution enterprise from December 2018 to September 2019 when they forced an adult female victim to engage in sex acts for profit.

Smith played football at the University of Arizona for two seasons and is the son of current University of Illinois coach Lovie Smith. Smith served as an assistant coach in the NFL from 2009 to 2015 and coached under his father when he headed up the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

After a Chandler Police Department investigation, Smith was arrested in his home in August. He is being held on a $100,000 bond and his arraignment is slated for Sept. 10.