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Hotel manager leads police to prostitution arrest

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- A 34-year-old Columbia Heights man is charged with promoting the prostitution of a 17-year-old girl -- after a hotel manager found information about the man's escort service online.

Samuel Cozart was charged Thursday in Ramsey County. According to the complaint, Cozart approached a man in the Days Inn Hotel in Roseville on Tuesday and asked where he could get fake identification for a girl staying with him.

The man happened to be the boyfriend of a hotel employee. So he told the hotel manager, who went online to investigate. The complaint says the manager found information about an escort service it seemed Cozart was running, and went to police.

Cozart's attorney was in court Thursday and did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.