Tracy Releford

Tracy Releford, 50, was arrested Wednesday and charged Thursday in Douglas County District Court with three felony charges and a single misdemeanor charge related to allegations of human trafficking.

Releford faces one felony count of aggravated human trafficking, one felony count of commercial sexual exploitation of a child, one felony count of promoting the sale of sexual relations and one misdemeanor count of buying sexual relations.

Between Monday and Tuesday, Releford is accused of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a 16-year-old person “knowing that the person… will be used to engage in forced labor, involuntary servitude or sexual gratification,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Douglas County District Court. He is also accused of offering sex acts from the same 16-year-old person to someone else.

Within the same time span, Releford is also accused of “procuring” another person – who is not a minor – to perform sex acts on someone, the complaint says. And he is accused of buying sex acts from a person who is not a minor.

Releford appeared in court Thursday afternoon where he was formally charged and Judge James George set his bail at $350,000.

Releford was convicted in 1991 of second-degree murder and armed criminal action, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

It was not immediately clear when Releford was released from prison, but he was still in prison in January 2013 when an article was published about his son, Travis Releford, who played basketball for KU.

In the article Travis Releford discussed his relationship with his father, who had been in prison for decades and had never attended one of his son’s basketball games.

If Tracy Releford is convicted of the three felony charges he could face more than 67 years in prison. He faces up to a year in jail for the misdemeanor charge. He is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.

I report on crime and courts for the Journal-World. I can be reached by email at cswanson@ljworld.com, by phone at (785) 832-7284 or on Twitter @Conrad_Swanson.