A former licensed nurse practitioner and business owner in Ames has pleaded guilty to fifteen counts of sex trafficking,
Federal prosecutors say Carl Dale Markley admitted in a plea agreement to using fraud and coercion to cause victims to engage in commercial sex acts from 2004 to 2023. Markley admitted to lying to the young men, saying he needed to perform sex acts or observe them engaging in sex acts in order to obtain medical massage certifications. He had worked at a wellness clinic and owned an indoor golf business. Markley sometimes used hidden cameras to capture videos and images of young men or minor male children naked.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 24th. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years for each of the sex trafficking counts, and a maximum sentence of life in prison.