Wednesday, September 18, 2024

WASHINGTON – Harrison Lee, 43, of Northeast Washington D.C., was sentenced today to 210 months in prison for sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl for his own financial benefit, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge David Geist of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division.

            Lee pleaded guilty on February 8, 2024, to sex trafficking of a minor before U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden. In addition to the 210-month prison sentence, Judge McFadden ordered Lee to serve 15 years of supervised release and pay $70,000 in restitution.

            According to court documents, in December 2015, Lee began advertising the minor 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” on a near-daily basis from December 18, 2015, to January 24, 2016. The advertisements posted by Lee contained nude and sexually explicit images of the minor that constituted child sexual abuse material.

            Lee transported the minor to hotels in the Washington D.C. area as well as to other states up and down the eastern seaboard, including New Jersey and Georgia. He took all the money that the minor earned, rendering her completely dependent on him.

            After the victim turned 18, Lee continued to exploit her in commercial sex off and on for years, until the time of his arrest on July 20, 2023. Lee received at least $70,000 from her commercial sex work.

            This case was investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Jessica Arco from the Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Burrell from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

            This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood initiative. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.