Ronald Garris, now 31, admitted arranging "dates" in which the 15-year-old girl was expected to perform sexual acts in exchange for payment.
A 31-year-old Plainfield man appeared in federal court and was sentenced to serve 12 years in federal prison for a charged that he recruited a 15-year-old girl to become a prostitute. (NJ Advance Media file photo) NEWARK -- Ronald Garris first met the 15-year-old girl at a South Plainfield motel in 2013 and told her of a way to make money, federal authorities said.
Garris, of Plainfield, convinced the girl that she could be going on "dates" he arranged for her in which she would have sex with other men, authorities said.
They said that within a week Garris had posted the girl's photo with a telephone number online, and on June 21, 2015, seven days after meeting Garris, the girl went to a New Brunswick hotel to meet men for sex.
Today, Garris, now 31, stood before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares in Newark and was sentenced to 144 months in federal prison for a charge of sex trafficking of a minor, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said.
He said Garris previously admitted meeting the girl on June 14, 2013, at the Best Western Hotel in South Plainfield, and that he recruited her to work as a prostitute.
Garris posted an advertisement on backpage.com that contained explicit photographs of the girl, including her telephone number and the town in which she was located, Fishman said.
Garris admitted arranging "dates" in which the girl was expected to perform sexual acts in exchange for payment, and said that the girl went to the Howard Johnson Express Inn in New Brunswick on June 21 for sexual encounters that he arranged.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Linares sentenced Garris to five years of supervised release, and ordered him to register as a sex offender, federal authorities said.
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