Spokane inmates sold girls for sex, according to court records

Spokane County inmates orchestrated sex crimes from their jail cells by arranging prostitution of underage girls, according to phone calls recorded by local and federal police.

Some calls originated inside the Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center, according to investigation documents filed earlier this month.

No sex crime charges have been filed in the case of a 17-year-old inmate, who was jailed earlier this year for his alleged role in a drive-by shooting attempt tied to gang activity. But in a series of recorded phone calls from the juvenile jail, the teen allegedly spoke about using the proceeds of prostituting a 14-year-old girl through a website to pay his $75,000 bond, according to court records.

The Spokesman-Review is not naming the suspects in this case because they are minors and underage family members are listed in court documents as potential suspects.

In a separate case, prosecutors earlier this month filed multiple charges against 35-year-old Dante D. Oliver, accusing him of arranging sex between a 16-year-old girl and men. Oliver made multiple phone calls from the Spokane County Jail to the girl, who later told police Oliver recruited her for prostitution, according to court records. Investigators believe an associate of Oliver’s posted the sex solicitation to the website Backpage.com. That same website also was used by friends of the jailed 17-year-old to solicit prostitution, police said in court documents.

The website, similar to Craigslist, has come under fire in state courts for allowing posts promoting prostitution. Last year, three teens ranging in age from 13 to 15 sued Backpage, saying they were sold for sex on the website.

Authorities declined to comment, saying their investigations are ongoing. Court documents disclose that detectives are still trying to contact alleged victims through phone records tracked to Backpage.com postings.

In the case involving the 17-year-old in juvenile detention, police had received complaints about threats being made against witnesses on social media and began listening to the teen’s phone calls from the detention center for clues, according to court documents.

In several of those phone calls, the teenager, his girlfriend and younger brother discussed “posting” and “making money.”

A team of investigators that included Spokane police detectives, FBI agents and Spokane County sheriff’s deputies set up an undercover meeting at a motel in Liberty Lake with the jailed 17-year-old’s girlfriend.

An investigator posed as a potential customer responding by text message. The girl, who is 16, responded to the text and arrived at the motel. She initially declined agreeing to exchange sex for $400 when police confronted her and began asking questions. She has not been arrested.

Later, the girl told police she had begun posting to Backpage earlier this year, though she denied that her boyfriend, the 17-year-old inmate, had anything to do with her prostitution, according to court records. She then requested a lawyer.

Authorities seized two cellphones from the girl as evidence.

In the case against Oliver, prosecutors charged him with new counts of human trafficking and promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor. They also charged his alleged associate, Rosie Williams, after police identified a second alleged victim who said the two forced her into prostitution when she was a 17-year-old runaway.