A 43-year-old Shoreline man, who was arrested last year in Kent for promoting prostitution, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 10 years in prison for interstate transportation of a 22-year-old woman for purposes of prostitution.
Judge James L. Robart also sentenced Joseph A. McDaniels to three years of supervised release, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office media release. Requirements during the supervised release include registration under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, sexual deviancy evaluation and treatment, restrictions and monitoring of his use of computers and restrictions on contact with minors.
McDaniels pleaded guilty on Sept. 28 to interstate transportation for prostitution.
The indictment alleged that between August 2011 and April 2012, McDaniels compelled the woman to engage in commercial sex acts through force, fraud and coercion and that McDaniels transported her between Washington and Oregon for purposes of prostitution.
Kent Police arrested McDaniels last April in his black Ford Expedition outside of the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent after the woman notified authorities about violation of a no-contact order she had against McDaniels. McDaniels had driven the woman to the RJC to drop a no-contact order between them. Instead, once inside the woman called police about McDaniels.
The woman told detectives she saw a chance while visiting the RJC to get away from McDaniels. She said she had known him for about one year and had been his girlfriend for six months. McDaniels allegedly made as much as $2,000 per month from the woman working as a prostitute for him, according to charging papers.
According to court filings, McDaniels is a registered sex offender and had completed serving a 15-year sentence for a series of robberies in the mid-1990s when he was released from state prison in early 2011. Only a few months later, McDaniels met and recruited the woman, preying upon her youth and drug addiction to coerce her into engaging in acts of prostitution.
McDaniels advertised the woman on backpage.com, transported her to prostitution dates, took all of her money and supplied her with drugs. He threatened to harm her and her family, and in December 2011, McDaniels was arrested by Auburn Police and later convicted in state court for assaulting the woman.
“The exploitation and sexual abuse of a vulnerable young woman is intolerable and the Justice Department will continue to prosecute and seek justice for victims of such abhorrent crimes,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.
Kent Police first contacted McDaniels in November 2011 in a dispute over money involving a suspected pimp at a Kent trailer park. He told officers he contracted with an escort company to retrieve money from clients who refused to pay for services. No arrests were made. The woman who was the escort was the same woman who turned in McDaniels outside the RJC.
Kent detectives later determined the woman had been living with McDaniels since he got out of jail April 3. He reportedly took her to Portland to work as a prostitute the weekend of April 20. She did five tricks in one day with customers and turned over all of the money to McDaniels.
“We will continue our battle against human trafficking in Western Washington,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Washington Jenny A. Durkan. “We are fortunate to have committed local, state and federal officers working together to find and stop sexual predators like the defendant. Today (Tuesday) the court ensured that other young women will not be exploited by him.”
McDaniels had the woman live with him and his wife at his Shoreline home. McDaniels reportedly told his wife she could divorce him if she didn’t like the living arrangement.
McDaniels has a criminal record that includes first-degree robbery with sexual motivation in 1997, first-degree burglary with sexual motivation in 1997 and first-degree robbery in 1995. In the 1997 case, he responded to a classified ad to sell a trumpet and ended up in the 16-year-old girl’s home where he pointed a gun at the girl and ordered her upstairs where he raped her and forced her to perform oral sex on him before he tied her up and fled the home. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in that case.
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