Mount Vernon, WA – A Lynnwood man is currently being held in the Skagit County Jail in Mount Vernon, Washington on suspicion of forcing two women into prostitution.
According to court documents obtained by Skagitbreaking.com through a public disclosure request, in March of 2017 Mount Vernon Officers worked a case where a local woman had been identified as a possible victim of Human Trafficking by 29-year old Christopher Lee Allen with a last known address in Lynnwood.
On June 16th, 2017, Mr. Allen and the woman were contacted in Williston North Dakota. Detectives interviewed the woman who stated she was being held against her will by Mr. Allen and he was forcing her to commit prostitution. On June 23rd, 2017 an arrest warrant was issued in North Dakota for Mr. Allen for Facilitating Prostitution and an additional warrant was issued for Felonious Restraint with a nationwide extradition. Mr. Allen and the woman had already left the area before he could be taken into custody.
In the early morning hours of June 30th, 2017, Mount Vernon Officers responded to reports that 29-year old Christopher Lee Allen was back in Skagit County and was possibly holding a woman against her will and forcing her into prostitution. Officers were informed that once Mr. Allen learned police were en route to his location in the 3700 block of East College Way, he led the woman away from a vehicle by the arm and left the area before Officers arrived.
A third-party that was with the man and woman was interviewed by Officers and Officers attempted to contact Mr. Allen by phone to check on the status of the woman. When Mr. Allen answered the phone he told Officers that he didn’t know what they were talking about and hung up on the Officers.
During the course of the investigation, Officers learned that the woman, a third person and Mr. Allen had went to pick up Mr. Allen’s ID from a house in Mount Vernon. When a woman at the house refused to give Mr. Allen his ID and called police, he took off and led the victim by the arm with him. They then hid throughout the night before taking a UBER ride to a hotel in Smokey Point. Once they were at the hotel, Mr. Allen talked to an attorney on the phone, who told him he was looking at 20+ years in prison. Mr. Allen then wrote out a script for the woman to read to Mount Vernon and Williston Police Detectives about how she made things up in her previous statements to them about Mr. Allen.
Court Documents say she had the phone on Speaker phone when she called Williston Detectives. As Detectives would ask her a question, Mr. Allen would whisper in her ear what he wanted her to say, then she would tell the Detective. The woman later told Detectives that she feared Mr. Allen would kill her if she didn’t comply with his requests. The woman told Detectives that when she tried to previously escape, Mr. Allen had pulled her back into a room and physically assaulted her.
Around 11:00 a.m., on June 30th, 2017 the victim contacted Mount Vernon Detectives and wanted to recant her statement to them as well. As Detectives asked the woman questions, she would pause, then they could hear a males voice in the background and then the woman would answer the Detectives question as if she was being coached.
Once Detectives hung up with the victim, they were notified that the her and Mr. Allen were in Arlington, Washington and that they had plans to take a cab back to Mount Vernon to get the car the victim had been led from the previous night.
Mount Vernon and Williston Police Detectives used latitude/longitude technology to ping the woman’s cell phone. Officers started calling hotels in the area and found a hotel the woman and Mr. Allen had checked into the previous night. Officers were able to contact the room and took Mr. Allen into Custody and the victim was transported back to the Mount Vernon Police Station for an interview.
Mr. Allen is being held in the Skagit County Jail in Lieu of $100,000 bail for Fugitive from Justice as well as $10,000 bail for Tampering with a Witness. He is awaiting extradition back to North Dakota to face the FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE accusations that he forced two women into prostitution in North Dakota, including the victim rescued in Smokey Point by Mount Vernon Officers.
According to an article written by Jamie Kelly from the Willistonherald.com, Mr. Allen is being charged in North Dakota Northwest District Court with facilitating prostitution, a class A Felony, felonious restraint, a class C Felony, and simple assault, a Class B Misdemeanor.
Mr. Allen is accused in North Dakota of offering a different woman a high paying job. When the woman accepted, Mr. Allen bought her a train ticket to Williston. When Mr. Allen picked her up, he informed the woman that she “will do different work,’ according to court documents. Mr. Allen told the woman that she “shouldn’t have to worry as long as she does what she’s supposed to do” and that he wasn’t presenting the job in a “pimp or prostitute way.”
Mr. Allen then allegedly set up online advertisements for massages as a pretext for prostitution and arranged for the woman to meet men, who wanted to pay for sex. Mr. Allen told the women what to do, including that they were to perform sex acts and then forced them to him $100.00 of the $250.00 the “clients” gave them.
The first woman contacted police after her and Mr. Allen got into a fight and she ran from the trailer they shared in the 2600 block of University Avenue in North Dakota.
The two women knew of each other as the first woman told police that her and the second woman tried to escape without Mr. Allen noticing them but he had taken their cell phones and he had assaulted them. The second woman, who was rescued in Smokey Point, Washington, told Williston Police that she had been held in an apartment in the 3700 block of Seventh Street West for Six days and that when she tried to escape, Mr. Allen drug her back inside and physically assaulted her. She said her and Mr. Allen had arrived in Williston around March. In the four months she was there she had stopped counting how many appointments happened, where Mr. Allen forced her into having sex with men for money.
It is unknown when Mr. Allen will be extradited back to North Dakota to face charges. If convicted of all charges, Mr. Allen faces over 25-years in prison.
Well this is discusting! What a horrible thing to do to a human being. I certainly hope these women get the help they need and pull themselves out of these sad, disturbing events.