Washington D.C. Man Sentenced To Federal Prison For Sex Trafficking Teen
Monday, September 23, 2024, 2:00 P.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
WASHINGTON, DC.- On Wednesday, September 18, 2024, Harrison Lee, 43, of Northeast Washington, D.C., appeared in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden to 210 months in federal prison for Sex Trafficking a 17-year-old girl for his own financial gain.
According to U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Lee had previously pleaded guilty on February 8, 2024, before U.S. District Judge McFadden to Sex Trafficking a Minor. In addition to the 210-month term of imprisonment, Judge McFadden ordered Lee to serve an additional 15 years of supervised release upon completing his federal prison sentence and further ordered Lee to pay $70,000 in restitution to the victim.
According To Court Documents
According to documents filed with the court, in December 2015, Lee began advertising the teen girl for commercial sex on Backpage.com, a now-defunct website that had an Escorts-For-Hire section.
Lee placed ads with headings such as “Young Exotic MIXED GIRL” daily from December 18, 2015, to January 24, 2026. The advertisements posted by Lee on the website contained nude and sexually explicit images of the minor that constituted child sexual abuse material.
During this time frame, Lee transported the teen girl to hotels in the Washington D.C. area, and other states up and down the East Coast, including New Jersey and Georgia. Lee then took all the money that the girl earned, making her dependent on him for her basic needs.
Lee Continued To Sexual Exploit The Victim
After the girl turned 18, Lee continued to exploit her in the commercial sex trade, which continued for years until his arrest on July 20, 2023. Lee received at least $70,000 from her commercial sex work.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative that was launched in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse.
