$100K bond for West Side man charged with promoting prostitution

Bond was set at $100,000 Sunday for a West Side man charged with promoting prostituting following an undercover operation by the Cook County sheriff’s office.

Jamal Shells, 29, faces felony counts of promoting prostitution and domestic battery, according sheriff’s police.

On Feb. 19, an undercover officer with the sheriff’s office responded to an advertisement in the escorts section on Backpage.com, police said.

The officer was told to meet a 20-year-old woman at a Schiller Park hotel room, and once an agreement was made to exchange money for sex acts, she was arrested.

Officers learned that Shells had rented the rooms for the woman, knew prostitution was happening in the rooms and that he would profit, according to the statement. He was found at a sandwich shop in the 4100 block of Mannheim Road in Schiller Park and taken into custody.

Shells, of the 2700 block of West Washington, appeared in court Sunday, where a judge ordered him held on a $100,000 bond. He is due back in court Tuesday.