Thurston County man gets 5 years in prison for having sex with teen runaway

A Thurston County man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for the sexual exploitation of a teenage runaway.

Timothy Scott Harrison, 25, received the maximum sentence at his hearing in Thurston County Superior Court. He previously pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree rape of a child. A charge of commercial sexual abuse of a minor was dropped as part of a plea deal.

Harrison, a transient, was arrested in November 2014 after law enforcement received a tip about two juvenile females who had run away from the Haven House facility and were at risk of being sexually trafficked. One of the girls, 15, told detectives that Harrison had tried to “pimp her out” to other men at an RV in Tumwater, and that Harrison may have gotten her pregnant, according to court documents.

Harrison told detectives he met the 15-year-old female at the artesian well in downtown Olympia.

A co-defendant in the case, Stephen Rey Johantgen, 19, pleaded guilty in August to a lesser charge of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation. He was sentenced to 24 months of probation and was required to get evaluations for sexual deviancy and chemical dependency.

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 7:23 AM with the headline "Thurston County man gets 5 years in prison for having sex with teen runaway."