The alleged ring leaders of a teen-aged prostitution ring based in Tea will be held over for trial.

The decision was reached Tuesday morning in Sioux Falls federal court. The orders say Brandon Thompson and Megan Hayes are to remain in federal custody to stand trial at the end of next month.

A federal judge made that decision after hearing the details of the four month investigation which led to Thompson and Hayes being arrested 10 days ago.

Inside Sioux Falls federal court, Judge John Simko listened as federal prosecutors laid out what they say are the facts:
That Brandon Thompson and Megan Hayes lived in a house in the 500 block of East Brian Street in Tea and both recruited teen-aged girls for a prostitution ring and used a web site, backpage.com, to offer the girls for sex in exchange for money.
The federal complaint says Thompson had recruited two underage girls to work for him and would take the girls to the Motel 6 on Russell Avenue in Sioux Falls where the girls would meet customers Thompson had lined up.
Investigators say they know of two underage prostitutes but never identified them by name or age.
A woman who claims she was a prostitute in this ring last summer, we're calling her Wendy, tells us there were two underage girls working for Thompson. "There's one that was 16 and one that was 17."

After the 35 minute hearing, Judge Simko ruled there was enough evidence to hold Thompson and Hayes over for trial.

That trial is tentatively scheduled for January 26th.
Thompson and Hayes's attorneys are set to be back in court next week as they discuss which pieces of evidence will be admissible in that trial.

2009 KSFY Action News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.