A 42-year-old Kent man pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree promoting prostitution in connection with a Seattle Police undercover sting last summer near Westlake Center in downtown Seattle.
Michael D. Gaines, who has a lengthy criminal record, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, July 24 in King County Superior Court in Seattle. He faces a potential sentence of seven years, three months in prison, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Seattle Police arrested Gaines Aug. 23 after he tried to pick up an undercover cop. Gaines remains in custody at the county jail in Seattle.
Police used two female officers to pose as 17-year-old girls along the strip of Pine Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue near the Westlake Mall, according to charging papers.
The officers were sitting in plain clothes near the Westlake Park fountain when they were approached late in the afternoon Aug. 23 by Gaines and Bruce J. Brooks, of Seattle, who also was arrested.
The two men struck up conversations with the undercover female officers and kept talking to them after the officers said they were 17 years old. Gaines allegedly told one of the officers that he was once a pimp and was considering becoming a pimp again. He told the undercover officer he wanted her to work for him as a prostitute and instructed her about how much to charge clients for specific sex acts.
Gaines reportedly added that she must turn over all of her earnings to him and that he was the only one she should listen to. He said he would protect her and line up hotel rooms for her to work as a prostitute.
According to charging papers, Gaines is unemployed. He has been booked 35 times since 1988 consisting of 39 warrants. His felony convictions include possession of cocaine/heroin in 1998; manufacture/delivery of cocaine/heroin in 1990, 1991 and 1999; third-degree assault in 2007 and promoting prostitution in 1998. He has misdemeanor convictions for fourth-degree assault in 2011; DUI in 2011; prostitution in 1990 and nine other convictions.
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