Cecil County Man Sentenced to More Than 12 Years in Federal Prison for Sex Trafficking of a Child

Baltimore, Maryland – On January 17, 2023, U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Xavier Lee, a/k/a “X,” age 44, of Elkton, Maryland, to 150 months in federal prison, followed by 25 years of supervised release, for sex trafficking of a minor.  Judge Hollander also ordered Lee to pay restitution of $15,600 to a minor victim.  As a result of his conviction, upon his release from prison, Lee will be required to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). 

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Lt. Colonel Dalaine Brady, Acting Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; Chief Carolyn Rogers of the Elkton Police Department; Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal E. Awad; and Cecil County State’s Attorney James Dellmyer.

According to his plea agreement, for the past decade Lee has operated an illicit prostitution business for financial gain, including operating a website, where Lee posted advertisements of women whom he made available for commercial sexual acts with paying customers. That website was seized by the FBI, in conjunction with the United States Attorney’s Office and the Maryland State Police.  For a time, Lee also operated a different website, where he offered a subscription pornographic service to paying customers.

As detailed in the plea agreement, Lee admitted that he had sexual contact with a minor victim, beginning when the victim was 14 years old.  Lee recorded his sexual contact with the minor victim when she was 15 and 16 years old.  Investigators recovered eight separate videos from Lee’s electronic devices, each of which had been recorded by Lee and each of which documented the sexual abuse of the minor victim, depicting the minor victim engaged in sexual acts with Lee or with another adult man.  Lee admitted that he was aware of the minor victim’s true age.

For approximately the five years leading up to his arrest in 2019, Lee’s prostitution business was run almost exclusively out of a hotel located in Elkton, Maryland.  Not only did Lee primarily use the same hotel in Elkton to prostitute women, Lee always used the same room.  Lee ran his prostitution business according to a set pattern and protocol.  Lee posted advertisements of women whom he made available for commercial sex acts with paying customers.  The “profiles” of the females whom Lee was prostituting included photographs, descriptions, and fictitious names.  The website also listed the cost of prostitution appointments, described services that were available, and allowed customers to post comments. 

Finally, Lee admitted that in 2013, including in or about April 2013, Lee also had another minor victim who was sixteen to seventeen years old, to prostitution dates at Lee’s direction.  These prostitution dates were arranged through Lee’s website.  Lee was aware of the minor victim’s true age during the time because the minor victim advised Lee of her true age. 

The case was investigated by the FBI-led Maryland Child Exploitation Task Force, which was created to combat child prostitution, with members from ten state and federal law enforcement agencies.  The Task Force coordinates with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Maryland State Police Child Recovery Unit to identify missing children being advertised online for prostitution.

MCETF partners with the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking, while identifying and prosecuting offenders.  Members include federal, state and local law enforcement, as well as victim service providers and local community members.  For more information about the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, please visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/md/priorities_human.html.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI, the Maryland State Police, the Elkton Police Department, the Anne Arundel County Police Department, and the Cecil County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam K. Ake, who prosecuted the case.

# # #