38-year-old man ran sex ring for nearly a decade across Eastern WA, including Tri-Cities

A 38-year-old Spokane man ran a sex ring for more than a decade out of his house, “pimping women” to customers he found through online ads.

Seth Randles would violently beat the young women if they refused to follow his instructions or went off script with customers.

One of the survivors reported being trafficked at least once a day to strangers, and occasionally as many as 10 times in one day, with Randles keeping all the money for himself. He even had his street name tattooed on the leg of one victim to indicate that she was his property.

A woman who repeatedly came back to Randles because of her “complicated emotional attachment to him” said she’d never known him to have a legitimate job.

She further told authorities that Randles’ “sole source of income was derived by collecting the proceeds of his victims’ sexual acts with clients,” according to his plea agreement.

Randles admitted that he’d been forcing women to engage in commercial sex acts since at least 2009.

That same year, one woman and a 16-year-old girl were caught in an undercover hotel prostitution operation in Richland.

Randles, who was found waiting outside the hotel, pushed police to find out what they were investigating and claimed the woman had been there to give a massage.

However, the teen told an officer that she was there to keep the woman safe and to collect the money she received in exchange for a “sexual massage.” She also said Randles was there to “protect them” and “act as a bodyguard,” court documents show.

20-year sentence

Now, he’s going to federal prison for 20 years after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to two sex trafficking charges.

The sentence, handed down last week by Chief Judge Stanley S. Bastian, was the maximum available for the charges.

After serving the time, Randles will be on 15 years of court supervision and will have to register as a sex offender.

“Randles used intimidation, violence, and humiliation to force his victims to perform commercial sex acts and caused immeasurable harm,” Vanessa R. Waldref, the new U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said in a news release. “The significant term of imprisonment imposed ... will help the victims in the healing process while holding Randles accountable for his criminal conduct.”

Waldref said her office “will continue its aggressive efforts to bring justice to all victims of sexual exploitation.”

She commended the Federal Bureau of Investigations and local law enforcement partners for investigating the case.

Randles was sentenced to prison for five years and five months in September 2003 for first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. The case was out of Spokane County.

He acknowledged in his plea agreement that he had been pimping women from 2009 onward, which means he started shortly after his release from state prison.

Woman came forward

One of the survivors and her family went to police in 2017.

She explained that Randles forced them to perform sex acts at his townhouse while he hid on the second floor. He also used the Spokane home to stage photos of women that he could post in online advertisements.

When one victim refused to do as he wanted, Randles dragged her out of the shower by her hair, pushed and kicked her, stomped on her body, and punched her in the mouth, according to the Department of Justice news release.

That victim’s mother was so terrified of Randles that she repeatedly told police she feared Randles would kill her daughter or retaliate against their family if he found out they had contacted law enforcement, the news release said.

The women were given explicit instructions on how to perform sex acts and provided with scripted lines that they had to memorize and use when communicating with customers. They were not allowed to write down the scripts because Randles believed they could get into the hands of law enforcement and be used as evidence against him.

He also taught the women to “screen” prospective clients to make sure they were not law enforcement.

On at least one occasion, Randles beat a victim to the point that she needed medical care, but did not allow her to receive it, the news release said.

When there was a dispute with a “client” about a sex act, he violently beat both the “john” and his trafficking victim because he worried the client would do an online social media post and negatively affect his business.

The Department of Justice said Randles arranged for the serial rapes of at least two of his victims after driving them to Wenatchee. Court documents show he drove the women to other towns in Eastern Washington and even to Boise, Idaho.

“For years, Seth Randles terrorized and intimidated his victims, trafficking them to strangers and treating them as his personal property for his own personal gain,” said Donald Voiret, special agent in charge of the FBI in Seattle.

“Our hope is these victims realize they are not invisible and see the imposition of the highest sentence possible, as tangible proof of our commitment to protect those involved in similar circumstances.”

This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 1:16 PM.