Biddeford Man Sentenced to Over Four Years for Interstate Transportation for Prostitution

Contact: Julia M. Lipez
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Leo Grondin, 49, of Biddeford, Maine, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Chief Judge Nancy Torresen to 51 months in prison and 5 years of supervised release for transporting an individual in interstate commerce with the intent that she engage in prostitution.  Grondin pleaded guilty on September 29, 2015.

Court records reveal that on July 15, 2015, Grondin drove a woman from southern Maine to Dover, New Hampshire, where the woman performed sexual services for clients for money.  On July 17, 2015, law enforcement officers located an online advertisement for escort services that listed a contact phone number associated with Grondin and a location in Dover, New Hampshire.  Law enforcement tracked Grondin and the woman to the Comfort Inn in Dover, where Grondin was arrested on a pending state warrant. 

The defendant was subject to an enhanced sentence because Chief Judge Torresen found that he coerced the woman into the prostitution activity.  Chief Judge Torresen called the defendant’s conduct “reprehensible.”

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Human Trafficking Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Biddeford and Dover, New Hampshire Police Departments.