Registered Sex Offender Sentenced to Federal Prison for Sex Trafficking of a Child

PORTLAND, OR—U.S. Attorney Karin J. Immergut announced that Troy Lamont Scurry, 39, of Happy Valley, Oregon, was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, after his guilty plea to the sex trafficking a child. U.S. District Judge James A. Redden sentenced Scurry to serve 84 months in prison and five years of supervised release.

The defendant was originally charged in a seven-count indictment alleging multiple counts of sex trafficking of a child and interstate prostitution. The indictment alleged criminal conduct related to three different victims.

On March 31, 2009, the defendant pled guilty to Count One of the indictment, which charged him with the sex trafficking of a minor female. The investigation revealed that the defendant originally met this victim in approximately 2003 when she was about 13 years old. At some point the defendant brought up the possibility of her working as a prostitute for him. The defendant had promised her that he could “show her the world, give her cloths and money, and take her to nice restaurants.” In getting the victim to work as a prostitute for him, the defendant gave her a list of rules she had to follow including what she was to charge for various sex acts, where and how she was to work as a prostitute, and how she was to try and detect undercover police officers. The victim started working as a prostitute for the defendant in Portland, Oregon. In March 2004, the defendant took the victim up to Washington to work as a prostitute.

“The prostitution of a minor, by both her pimp as well as the ‘johns’ out there taking advantage of her, is a crime that offends all standards of civility,” noted U.S. Attorney Karin J. Immergut. “This defendant, simply put, profited from the sexual abuse and rape of a child. The impact on these young girls is truly incalculable.”

During the sentencing hearing, the government presented the Court with a statement from one of the minor victims, in which she told the Court: “I was so brainwashed I didn’t think my family loved me. I was made to do horrible things that I knew were wrong . . . . My mom went through a lot, not knowing where I was or if I was even alive. . . . He [the defendant] has put my family through hell. No one will ever feel the pain I went through that this man has caused me. . . . I am thankful that I am safe and now I am a strong woman and have made it through all of this. . . . Troy is a horrible human being….”

The case was investigated by the Oregon Human Trafficking Taskforce, FBI, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the Portland Police Bureau. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin.