Dallas Man Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Trafficking Offense

DALLAS — A Dallas man who facilitated his 16-year-old girlfriend’s commercial sex acts appeared in federal court this morning and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney to one count of sex trafficking of children, announced John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Trenton McLemore, 29, faces a statutory maximum penalty of not less than 10 years and up to life in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.  However, the parties agree if the Court accepts the plea agreement, the appropriate term of imprisonment in this case is 252 months (21 years) in federal prison.  Sentencing is set for October 21,2015, before U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn.

According to documents filed in the case, McLemore met “Jane Doe” and her family when she was 11-years-old.  In July 2013, when Jane Doe was 16-years-old, she ran away from home to be with McLemore, and the two began living in motels.

On August 1, 2013, McLemore began facilitating Jane Doe’s commercial sex acts in several ways.  He asked friends and family to rent rooms for them at a Super 8 Motel and a Motel 6 in the Dallas area for her to use with commercial sex customers.  McLemore also provided Jane Doe a cell phone for her to use to communicate with commercial sex customers.  McLemore often used that phone to communicate with Jane Doe’s customers, sometimes posing as her and texting her customers to arrange “dates” and then leaving the motel room shortly before the customer arrived.

McLemore also took sexually explicit photos of Jane Doe that he distributed via text message to potential customers.  Often, McLemore would stay near the motel room to act as Jane Doe’s bodyguard while she engaged in the commercial sex acts, and he would return to the room shortly after the customer left to collect the proceeds.

In mid-September 2013, a detective with the Irving Police Department conducting an operation to identify possible victims of human trafficking, found a commercial sex advertisement on Mocospace.com with photographs of a female who appeared to be underage.  He contacted the number, and after exchanging several messages regarding a potential commercial sex act, they agreed to meet on September 19, 2013, in a specific room at a Super 8 Motel in Irving, Texas.

As McLemore left that room shortly before the “date,” he was seen texting at the same time the detective was receiving messages about the “date.”  When the detective arrived and entered the motel room, Jane Doe agreed to engage in a commercial sex act with him.  She was then placed in custody and law enforcement determined she was a 16-year-old runaway from Dallas.

McLemore had stayed nearby while that “date” occurred, and his personal items were later found inside that motel room.  When law enforcement learned Jane Doe’s age, they arrested McLemore for compelling prostitution of a person under the age of 18 and human trafficking.  He has been in custody since that time. 

The Irving Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), both members of the North Texas Trafficking Taskforce, investigated.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Cara Foos Pierce is in charge of the prosecution.

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