A teenage girl arrested for prostitution led authorities to Timothy Wayne Lee, who is suspected of trafficking several young women from Colorado to California and Utah for prostitution over a four-year period.
A federal grand-jury indictment unsealed in Denver on Friday charges Lee with sex trafficking children, transportation of a minor for prostitution, transportation of illegal sexual activity, sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography.
The indictment says at least four minors were victimized.
One of the teens was enticed into posing for nude photographs, and the pictures were found on Lee’s laptop computer, according to the grand jury.
The charges also say that Lee used five adult women as prostitutes and took them across state lines from May 2005 through February 2009.
Lee, 44, of Denver faces decades or up to life in federal prison if convicted of the charges.
Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh called the trafficking of children one of the most heinous crimes prosecuted.
“Combating the exploitation of children is at the very top of our priority list for investigation and prosecution,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda Taylor will prosecute Lee when he gets to Denver.
Lee’s first court appearance has not yet been set. He is in custody in New Mexico on a separate state charge.
Last year, Lee was accused in Nashville, Tenn., of keeping women as sex slaves in a motel room.
The women in Tennessee told police they had been held against their will and forced to respond to Internet ads for sexual services, according to the Nashville City Paper.
Several law enforcement agencies were involved in the case, including the FBI’s Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force and members of its Innocence Lost Working Group.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
