3 arrested at Fife motel after teen girl on drugs found to be prostituted there - TheNewsTribune.com

Three people accused of harboring a 15-year-old runaway at a Fife motel and pimping her out were arrested Wednesday, police said.

Officers stopped the girl in the 3400 block of Pacific Highway East for a pedestrian violation and began questioning her once they realized she was on drugs. The girl, from Marysville, had apparently run away five days earlier.

The girl told detectives she had been staying with a man and two women at a nearby motel. Detectives served search warrants at two motel rooms and found drugs, syringes, cell phones and a computer allegedly used to post online prostitution ads of the teen and the two women.

Both women denied knowing the girl was underage, police said. The man claimed he didn't know what was going on in the motel but police said he was arrested in one of the rooms and had a key to the other.

The girl was released to her mother and prosecutors have not yet decided whether to charge her in Juvenile Court. The women were arrested on suspicion of prostitution and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. The man was booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of promoting sexual abuse of a minor and various drug-related crimes.