A 27-year-old Kent man was sentenced Friday, Dec. 10 in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 12 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor.
Al-Penyo Brooks, was charged federally in November 2020, in coordination with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, according to an U.S. Department of Justice news release.
Brooks was identified as a suspect in May 2020 when Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies and Seattle Police Department officers worked urgently to recover a 17-year-old girl who had run away from her Pierce County home. Brooks recruited the girl online, and then encouraged her to leave home and groomed her to work as a prostitute. Brooks pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a minor in June 2021.
“Outside of murder, this is the most despicable thing you can do…particularly given the age of the victims,” U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said at the sentencing. “The conduct is simply not acceptable… it is someone who does not belong in society.”
U.S. Attorney Nick Brown echoed Robart’s comments.
“Mr. Brooks has spent most of his adult life exploiting the most vulnerable, living off the prostitution profits of juveniles and young women,” Brown said. “This lengthy prison sentence, with 10 years of supervised release to follow prison, are necessary to protect the public.”
According to records in the case, the girl has developmental delays, and unbeknownst to her guardian, had set up a Facebook account. Using Facebook Messenger, Brooks communicated with the girl about her interest in music and writing songs.
Brooks’ communications led the girl to believe he could promote her in the music business. Even after the girl told Brooks she was 17, Brooks made arrangements to pick her up near her home and told her how to evade her guardian. He picked her up and had an associate change her hair and clothing. He provided her with drugs and alcohol and sexually assaulted her while she was impaired.
Brooks then instructed the girl to walk the “track” on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle, telling her to perform sex acts for money, according to court records. The girl was ultimately taken to an apartment in North Seattle where police located her when she signed into Facebook on the IP address listed for the apartment.
In his plea agreement, Brooks also acknowledged previously recruiting a teenage runaway to work for him as a prostitute when she was 15 years old. Brooks also acknowledged threatening to kill the girl if she did not work for him as a prostitute and to assaulting and controlling her.
In addition, Brooks acknowledged assaulting a woman who was working for him in prostitution. In that case Brooks pushed the woman from a moving car when she told him she no longer wanted to work for him as a prostitute. A neighborhood doorbell camera captured images of the woman being pushed from the moving car and dragged under its wheels. She was treated at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for significant lower body injuries.
The case was investigated by the Seattle Police Department. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office worked closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office on the case.
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