Fiancée says man wanted her to be prostitute

The 18-year-old fiancée of a man accused of coercing a preteen girl into prostitution said Friday that the suspect asked her last year to work as a prostitute, as well.

The South Seattle woman said that when she declined, the man grew angry, but he eventually stopped talking about making her work as a prostitute, and he started talking about getting other girls to do it.

She said the 23-year-old man spent almost every night at the apartment where she lives with her father — she sneaked him in because her father forbid it.

"He's a good person. He makes me laugh," the woman said of the suspect Friday.

The Seattle Times is not naming the woman because police are investigating her claim that the man tried to coerce her into prostitution. The Times is not naming the man because he has not been charged with a crime.

The 23-year-old man was being held Friday at the King County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail for investigation of rape of a child and promoting prostitution stemming from the case involving a 12-year-old girl. He has been previously convicted of escape and two counts of possession of stolen property, and he has been booked into the county jail seven other times in the past 11 months.

The man met the 12-year-old girl on a downtown Seattle sidewalk Jan. 9, a police report said. The girl told police he persuaded her to run away from home, so they got on a bus bound for White Center.

The two stayed at the 18-year-old woman's West Seattle-area apartment that night and the following night, police said. Police allege that the man had sex with the 12-year-old girl on the floor of his fiancée's bedroom, but the 18-year-old woman said they didn't.

On Jan. 11, the man and the 12-year-old left the woman's home and took a bus to Federal Way, a police report said.

That night the girl walked the streets with orders from the man to work as a prostitute, police said. The man allegedly told her the exact prices to charge for each sex act.

One man paid her for oral sex, police said. When the customer asked her age, she said she "wasn't supposed to tell him," police said. As ordered, she turned most of the money over to the 23-year-old man.

That night the two slept in a shed near West Seattle. They returned to the 18-year-old woman's home the following day.

The 12-year-old girl returned to her family Sunday after another woman claiming to be a fiancée of the suspect called the girl's family, who tracked her down and then called police. The girl's family had called police and filed a missing-persons report after the girl hadn't returned home five days earlier.

Officers arrested the 23-year-old man Wednesday while he was with his 18-year-old fiancée in West Seattle. The 18-year-old woman said they were taken to the department's Southwest Precinct and questioned separately.

The woman said she doesn't believe the girl her fiancé brought to her house was 12. She said she recognized the woman from her childhood and believed her to be about 14.

She said that the girl told her that she needed a place to stay because her family was abusive. The woman said that her fiancé and the girl slept "separately" on her bedroom floor.

The woman said that when her fiancé isn't with her he is working for his father, who is a truck driver.

The woman's father grew angry Friday when he heard that his daughter had been letting the man stay over. He said he works 14-hour days at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Bremerton and isn't able to constantly keep an eye on her.

"He's disrespectful," the man said about his daughter's fiancé. "He sneaks in and hides so I won't find him. He's not real smart."

The man said he never saw the 12-year-old at his house, but said his daughter's fiancé often will bring other girls over.

He said he wishes his daughter would end the relationship.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com