Pierce County prosecutors have charged a Tacoma man with raping and pimping for a 15-year-old girl who says she was abducted in California and forced to work as a prostitute.
Not-guilty pleas were entered Thursday on behalf of Tyler Wallace Elkins, 20, to one count each of promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor and third-degree child rape. Superior Court Commissioner Meagan Foley ordered Elkins jailed on $75,000 bail.
The case against Elkins began Tuesday when the girl called police to report her wallet stolen, court records show. When officers arrived, she told them she'd just escaped from a man who was forcing her to prostitute herself.
She went on to say she been abducted from an apartment complex in California by a man called "Hollywood, " who forced her under threat of death to have sex with men for money, the records show.
On March 2, Hollywood put her on a train to Tacoma, she said. When she arrived, he was there to meet her at the station, loaded her into a black Mercedes and drove her to a park, where they met Elkins, the records show.
They then went to a local motel, where the girl said Elkins raped her. Other men later came by the room and paid for sex with her, the girl told police.
On Tuesday, Elkins allegedly took the girl to a fast-food restaurant, where she escaped after saying she had to go to the bathroom, records show. She made her way to the Amtrak station but didn't have enough money for a ticket home, so she called police, the records state.
Police arrested Elkins on Wednesday.
He confirmed he'd met the girl at a Tacoma park and had sex with her but denied acting as her pimp, saying his cousin took charge of that. He also told police he knows the real name of Hollywood.
Elkins later admitted he rented the girl a room at a hotel on Hosmer Street near 84th Street but contended he left her alone there and "did not do anything, " court records show.
"When asked what he was referring to, the defendant merely sobbed, " prosecutors wrote in charging papers. "The interview ended due to the defendant's emotional state."
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Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644 adam.lynn@ thenewstribune.com
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