Teen Pleads Guilty to Trafficking in No. 2 Sex Trade State

A Michigan teen could serve up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty for her part in an underage sex trafficking ring that reached as far as Arizona and Alabama.

Mariah Haughton, 17, of Lansing, will be sentenced July 15 by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk after pleading guilty to human trafficking and transporting of a female for the purposes of prostitution. The charges are punishable by four to 20 years in prison, the Lansing State Journal reports.

The sex trafficking ring, which operated from March-July 2014, involved teens who were 14 to 18 years of age, the newspaper said. According to court records, Haughton was a recruiter who and was the individual mainly responsible for taking nude photos of the girls and posting them on the Backpage.com website. She also scheduled appointments for the operations customers.

Haughton was charged as an adult in the case, which was prosecuted in both state and federal courts.

Two others were charged in the case. Christopher Bryant, 25, is appealing his 40-year sentence, handed down in federal court last month. Jonathan Purnell, 28, is awaiting trial in Ingham County.

According to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, one of the girls lured by the promise of easy money told investigators that she was given drugs and alcohol at a Lansing motel before having sex with multiple men, who paid between $100 and $200.

She said she believes she was transported to Arizona and Alabama to have sex with men, but couldn’t be sure because she was “not fully cognizant of what she was doing.”

Michigan is No. 2 in the sex trade behind Nevada in the sex trade, and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has appointed a new Human Trafficking Commission headed by Wayne County Sheriff’s Department Cpl. Erin Diamond. Diamond has arrested thousands of sex offenders over the years after online investigation, WJBK-TV reported.