Oregon sex trafficker took teens to Tri-Cities, other NW motels for ‘customers’

A Portland, Ore., man who took teen girls to Kennewick for sex trafficking has been sentenced to 24 years in federal prison.

Eric Lamont Harris, 51, brought two runaways, ages 15 and 16, to a Kennewick motel, where they were to make money for him in July 2022.

The younger teen was a runaway from the foster system, and the 16-year-old was reported missing by her family.

The older girl had been in touch with her father using Facebook Messenger, and the FBI traced a phone number associated with that account to Harris, according to federal court documents.

The FBI then tracked the phone number as it traveled in Oregon and into Washington to the Super 8 Motel in Kennewick.

Kennewick police and the FBI confronted Harris with the girls at the motel, according to court documents.

Harris said he was in town on vacation and did not say why he was at the motel with two teens, according to the documents. The teens said little to officers.

Police found condoms in the teens’ purses and sex aids inside the car Harris was driving.

He was briefly detained but then released.

Sex trafficker strangled teen

The teens were turned over to the Oregon Department of Human Services but soon ran away again, according to court documents.

The girls lived in Harris’ Portland apartment, and, after returning to Portland, the younger teen invited a 17-year-old friend who was homeless to live there also.

Harris provided all three with food and clothes and with phones to communicate with “customers.”

Harris had an associate who placed ads for sex for the girls, and Harris drove them to towns within a couple hundred miles of Portland to be trafficked in motels, according to court documents.

The Oregon District U.S. Attorney’s Office said Harris earned thousands of dollars from the teens commercial sex work.

The 17-year-old said in court that she was afraid of Harris and that he had a temper, but that she had no choice but to do commercial sex work for him in exchange for food and a place to live.

The 15-year-old said that Harris was her boyfriend and had a video he recorded of him having sex with her.

The two older teens said they also saw Harris physically abuse the 15-year-old. At one point the 16-year-old said she had to pry Harris off the younger girl when he was choking her.

Portland, Ore. man arrested

Both the prosecution and defense said the teens told Harris they were of legal age, including when he questioned the two after the Kennewick incident.

The FBI found online escort ads featuring the teens and continued collecting evidence. On Dec. 2, 2022, agents tracked phones linked to Harris and the youngest girl to a Motel 6 in Medford, where Harris was arrested.

Harris went on trial in federal court in Oregon in November 2025 on three counts of sex trafficking of a child, three counts of sex trafficking a child and benefitting from participation in a venture, one count of transportation with intent to engage in prostitution and one count of sexual exploitation of children.

Three days into the trial Harris changed his plea to guilty.

After his 24-year, 4-month prison term, he will be on supervised release for 10 years.

Officials said the case was brought in collaboration with the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. It marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims.

Victims of human trafficking or those who have information about a potential human trafficking situation may call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 888-373-7888 or may text 233733. The hotline is staffed 24 hours a day.