September 16, 2014

Vancouver Woman Sentenced to Four Years in Federal Prison for Transporting Minor for Sex

PORTLAND, OR—U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Jones sentenced Laura Lambden, 60, of Vancouver, Washington, to 48 months in federal prison, for transporting a young girl from Vancouver, Washington, to Oregon City, Oregon, for the purpose of prostitution. At the sentencing hearing on Monday, September 15th, Judge Jones further ordered defendant to serve a five-year term of supervised release at the time of her release from federal prison.

Lambden pleaded guilty in June 2014 to violating the Mann Act. Lambden admitted to transporting another person from Vancouver to Oregon City in November 2012, for the purpose of prostitution, but denied knowing that the girl she transported was a minor. The customer (or, “john”) in Oregon City, was 64-year-old Ben Riggs, who has also pleaded guilty to violating the Mann Act. Riggs is scheduled to be sentenced on September 29, 2014.

“The commercial sexual exploitation of our children violates federal sex trafficking laws, whether the exploiter is male or female, pimps don’t always fit the stereotype” stated U.S. Attorney S. Amanda Marshall. “Anyone who traffics a child in the District of Oregon will be prosecuted.”

This case stemmed from a coordinated investigation by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Child Exploitation Task Force, including the FBI and the Vancouver Police Department. The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children through sex trafficking, as well as to identify and recover victims. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacie Beckerman.