King County prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 20-year-old convicted rapist for allegedly forcing a teen into prostitution at two Bellevue hotels and possessing pornographic photos of another girl.
Court documents say Alexander L. Delgardno, of Mukilteo, forced an 18-year-old to work as a prostitute at the Red Lion and Bellevue Hyatt hotels with help from two juveniles, a 16-year-old girl reported missing in December and a 17-year-old boy.
Prosecutors have charged Delgardno with promoting sexual abuse of a minor and promoting prostitution in the first degree.
The 18-year-old told investigators that she agreed to meet Delgardno and the two teens after the girl contacted her online and offered her a job in hotel hospitality.
A Bellevue detective said the group bought the young woman $500 worth of clothing and lingerie at Bellevue Square, and then took her to the Red Lion hotel, where the men told her she would have to work as a prostitute to pay them back.
The young woman said she was not interested in prostituting herself, but the men allegedly threatened to harm her family and break her fingers if she did not comply.
The young woman told investigators she had sex with several men at the Red Lion and Bellevue Hyatt, and all the money she made went to her alleged captors.
Police say the group took nude photos of the woman and posted them on prostitution web sites, and Delgardno raped her in a hotel bathroom.
The alleged captors released the young woman after she told them her parents would report her missing if she didn’t return home.
Bellevue police arrested the two teens with help from Seattle vice detectives during a sting operation at the Bothell Country Inn Suites hotel.
Text messages from the 16-year-old girl show that she was working as a prostitute and making $500 to $600 a day. Investigators also found advertisements for her on a prostitution web site.
Delgardno denied raping the young woman or forcing her to work as a prostitute, but he admitted to detectives that he had explicit photos of the 16-year-old on his cell phone, and that he distributed those images – considered child pornography – on the internet.
Delgardno is a registered sex offender who was convicted of rape and child molestation as a juvenile after he admitted to sexually assaulting two acquaintances who were 14 and 11 years old.
His arraignment for the Bellevue case is scheduled for May 10.
Prosecutors have charged both of the alleged teen accomplices with promoting prostitution in the first degree.