Sex offender sentenced to 11 years after talking with Seattle cop posing as a minor
A man who had previously been released to a Tacoma halfway house from prison was sentenced Thursday to more than 11 years behind bars for attempted sex trafficking of a juvenile and attempted enticement of a minor.
Prentice Hollingsworth, 45, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 137 months in prison after unknowingly communicating with an undercover agent who was posing as a 15-year-old girl. According to the release, Hollingsworth tried to recruit the agent he thought was a juvenile as a prostitute.
During his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez noted Hollingsworth was unknowingly talking with an undercover agent, but he said that didn’t lessen the fact he was trying to traffic a vulnerable minor.
“The fact that the Defendant was on federal supervision and state supervision and still went right back to this behavior is very telling,” Martinez said, according to the release.
Hollingsworth has previously been convicted for rape, promoting prostitution and communicating with minors for an immoral purpose.
Less than a month after being released to a Tacoma half-way house from federal prison in December 2019, Hollingsworth began communicating with an undercover Seattle Police Officer he contacted online. The agent posed as a 15-year-old girl, and while Hollingsworth tried to recruit her as a prostitute, he told her she should leave school to devote more time to earning money in the sex trade, according to the release.
Hollingsworth was arrested in January 2020 at the Tacoma halfway house after he arranged for the “juvenile” to check into a hotel in Fife for prostitution.
Due to Hollingsworth’s prior convictions, he is required to register as a sex offender. According to the release, he will be on lifetime supervised release after his prison term.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 1:15 PM.
