Oregon Man Sentenced To Over 12 Years For Sex Trafficking Minors

Darryl Gartley of Oregon pled guilty in August to two counts of sex trafficking minors. Gartley was sentenced this week to 149 months and 12 days in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Gartley’s arrest was part of a national initiative on child sex trafficking launched and led by the Department of Justice (DOJ) since 2006.

According to a DOJ release, Gartley moved from California to Oregon in 2016 where he met two 15 year old female minors. In or around December 2016 through January 2017, Gartley posted advertisements on Backpage and Craigslist, offering the minors for commercial sexual acts. 

FEDagent reported that the founders of Backpage were indicted on 93 counts of prostitution and money laundering in April of 2018. The founders had made over $500 million in prostitution-related revenue via the website.

Gartley’s advertisements on the website included both clothed and nude pictures of the underage girls.

This conviction is the defendant’s second conviction for sex trafficking minors.  On May 22, 2017, the defendant was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on a state conviction for sex trafficking minors in California.

The investigation of the case was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

The case was also brought up as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide anti-child trafficking initiative which combines federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children.

This week, the Department of Justice also joined the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) and federal and local law enforcement officials at a roundtable to discuss the challenges posed by human traffickers. The meeting was held following the launch of FLETC’s Human Trafficking Awareness Training last week.