Two men charged with prostituting teen on Backpage.com

Two men have pleaded not guilty to charges they prostituted a 16-year-old girl they advertised on Backpage.com and raped a woman who refused to work for them.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist charged Eugene Andre Young, 28, and Claude Anthony Hutchinson, 25, with second-degree rape and promoting commercial sexual abuse against a minor.

They pleaded not guilty Monday in Pierce County Superior Court.

Lindquist says Lakewood police and the FBI’s Innocence Lost Task Force learned of the men after receiving a tip Oct. 2 that a 16-year-old girl was advertised as an escort on Backpage.com. Two undercover officers arranged to meet her at a hotel room in SeaTac where she was taken into custody.

The teen told police the men first took her to a motel in Fife on Sept. 25 and forced her to take pictures in her underwear and promised to take care of her if she made them money. She says they threatened to hurt her if she didn’t go along.

The girl says she feared the men because she’d seen them beat another woman who refused to do what they told her.

Lindquist says the teen was forced to prostitute herself with 20 to 30 men and gave the men her earnings, which amounted to about $2,000. They allegedly used the money to pay for food, condoms, and the motel room.

Fife police arrested the teen Sept. 28 on suspicion of prostitution, but Lindquist says when she was released her mother turned her away from home and she reunited with the two men because “she had nowhere else to go,” according to charging papers.

The two men brought her to the motel in SeaTac, where she was made to prostitute again before being taken into custody.

The second victim told police she dated Young, but broke up with him after learning he was a pimp. The woman says Young took her to a Fife motel where he and Hutchinson allegedly beat and sexually assaulted her for several days. Her family eventually rescued her when the two men left the room.