A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to two federal counts of sex trafficking after admitting he forced two 15-year-old girls into commercial sex across Washington and Oregon, prosecutors said. Dajohntae Rayshawnlee Richard contacted one of the girls on Facebook in May 2025, drove her to Washington, and had sex with her before directing her to solicit paying customers, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Richard hit and choked the first girl when she did not follow his instructions, and he kept the money she made from commercial sex, according to KOMO News. He approached a second 15-year-old girl in the Seattle area in June 2025, and court documents show he then controlled that girl's cellphone use and threatened her. A federal grand jury in Portland had already returned a four-count indictment against Richard on August 12, 2025, charging him with two counts of sex trafficking by fraud, force, and coercion and two counts of sex trafficking of a child, according to the Department of Justice. He made his initial appearance in Portland federal court under Judge Karin J. Immergut before being detained on August 25, 2025.
From Washington to Southeast Portland
On June 28, 2025, Richard transported both teens and an adult woman to Portland, rented a hotel room, and told the group to walk Southeast 82nd Avenue to find prostitution customers, per the report. That corridor has long been recognized by regional law enforcement and child advocates as a primary hub for street-level human trafficking and juvenile sex exploitation, according to the Department of Justice. Hoodline has previously reported on 82nd Avenue's reputation as a trafficking hotspot in a lawsuit over ignored warning signs filed by a teen trafficked at 13.
The Portland Police Bureau's Human Trafficking Unit has been running targeted, multi-agency enforcement operations along 82nd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard between March and May 2026, resulting in numerous buyer suppression arrests and victim recoveries, according to Portland.gov. Those missions focus on suppressing demand from buyers while connecting survivors to immediate advocacy services, the bureau said.
Mandatory Minimum Sentence Looms in December
Richard faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life, per KOMO's report on the case. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1591, sex trafficking involving minors or force, fraud, and coercion also carries five years of supervised release, mandatory sex offender registration, and potential fines up to $250,000, according to the Department of Justice. He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on December 7, 2026.
As part of his plea agreement, Richard agreed to pay full restitution to his victims and must pay a mandatory $100 special fee assessment in addition to sex offender registration requirements upon release, the Department of Justice said. The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kate Rochat and Eliza Carmen Rodriguez for the District of Oregon under U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford.
A Pattern of Prior Contact With Law Enforcement
Richard's name first drew public attention in a very different context. He was the intended target of a January 2017 King County Sheriff's Office undercover sting in Des Moines, Washington, that instead ended in the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Mi'Chance Dunlap-Gittens by law enforcement after detectives mistakenly targeted the wrong person, according to the Seattle Weekly. Official oversight reports later revealed that sting operation lacked written plans or supervisor approval.
In August 2021, a 21-year-old Richard was arrested by Bellevue police alongside another man after allegedly burglarizing a home in the Somerset neighborhood as part of a four-person residential burglary ring operating across King County, according to Patch. Bellevue police recovered a loaded handgun with a chambered round from the suspects' vehicle during that arrest.
A Regional Trend That Keeps Climbing
Richard's case fits into a broader pattern across the Pacific Northwest. Data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline shows identified trafficking victims in Oregon more than doubled between 2015 and 2021, rising from 64 to 160, while Washington recorded a 74% surge over the same period — far outpacing the national growth rate of 39%, according to OPB. In 2023 alone, Oregon recorded 132 trafficking cases involving 248 victims.
A Department of Justice-sponsored study by the National Institute of Justice found that while 77% of sex trafficking investigations led to prosecution, only about one-third were prosecuted under dedicated human trafficking statutes, with many cases instead pursued under secondary violent crime or drug charges. Legal experts cited in the same study noted that victim-centered approaches can make securing testimony difficult when minors deny being trafficked.
