MINNEAPOLIS – A St. Thomas University student pleaded not guilty in a child sex trafficking case that has shaken Minnesota Republican politics. Gisela Castro Medina was chair of the Republican student chapter at St. Thomas when she arrested in Florida. In her initial appearance virtually before U.S. Magistrate Judge Becky Thorson, Medina was granted a request to await trial at a halfway house. She had been held in jail since her arrest in August. She is charged with conspiring with Republican operative Anton Lazzaro to recruit and solicit minors for commercial sex. Lazzaro also has pleaded not guilty.

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