Army sergeant guilty of sex trafficking in Wash.
Published - Jul 24 2010 02:53AM EST
TACOMA, Wash. — A 27-year-old Army sergeant from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state has pleaded guilty in federal court to sex trafficking of a child and attempted sex trafficking of a child.
Prosecutors say Sterling Hospedales set up one juvenile in a Lakewood apartment to work as a prostitute and had a second juvenile flown in from Wyoming to do the same.
Prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison, but he could get life.
The Army is dishonorably discharging him.
Lakewood police began the investigation in April 2009, when officers found out about a juvenile runaway from Seattle who was posting Craigslist ads that said she was a prostitute. The federal Innocence Lost Task Force then found that juvenile and a second girl.
Normally what happens is that word gets out that a woamn or girl is prostituting herself and the police arrest her and she is prosecuted. maybe jailed, and turned back out into the streets, only to be faced with little options but to live in the streets and become a repeat offender in order to survive.
These two girls were lucky that the cops knew what was going on before the cops knew where they were.
This is why I fight against the present system but no one cares or listens, it seems.
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