An Ohio man pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday to bringing an underage girl and two adults to Monroeville to work as prostitutes, according to court documents.
Donte L. Cole, 40, of Euclid, Ohio, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to sex trafficking of a child and coercion of an adult to engage in commercial sex.
Prosecutors said police observed Cole renting a room at the Rodeway Inn & Suites in Monroeville in May 2023, and subsequently dropping off a female police suspected to be a minor, according to court records. Cole and another adult then left the hotel and were followed by police to the Ohio border, where Cole was stopped for a vehicle code violation.
Later that same night, police spoke with the female Cole dropped off at the hotel, as well as two adult females who were also in a rented room. Police said both rooms contained condoms, lubricant, pregnancy tests and only a few items of clothing. Police also said during observation over the past 24 hours, they’d seen several individuals going in and out of both rooms.
The two adult women told police they were commercial sex workers, who would send photos of themselves to Cole, which he would then post in online advertisements for sex.
The third female at the hotel told police she was 16 years old and was an Ohio resident. She was in possession of two cell phones, one that police said contained texts with Cole’s phone number and discussed payments for commercial sex work, according to federal court records. Through cell phone location data, police determined the juvenile’s phone had traveled from Cleveland to Monroeville on May 9, 2023.
Police made contact with the girl’s parents, who were not aware she was in Pennsylvania, police said. She was returned to her mother’s custody on May 10, 2023. The adult women at the hotel said their conversations with the juvenile indicated she had been performing commercial sex work with Cole since the age of 12.
Additional information on Cole’s phone indicated that he was aware the juvenile female was underage, and that she relied on Cole to provide food. Police said they saw numerous instances with messages indicating Cole had refused to provide her anything beyond fast food because she had not earned enough money.
Police learned Cole had placed commercial sex advertisements in Pittsburgh, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Illinois and Washington, D.C. Records from his phone indicated he had traveled to many of those cities as well, according to court documents.
Two ads offering the juvenile female’s sexual services were posted shortly after police observed her entering the Rodeway Inn on May 9, 2023.
Five months after she was returned to her parents’ custody, in October 2023, the juvenile’s photos were again seen by police in online advertisements for commercial sex, using some of the same phone numbers posted in earlier ads. Ohio investigators, acting undercover, arranged a commercial sex transaction with her at a hotel in North Randall, Ohio, where the Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force retrieved her on Oct. 6, 2023.
In subsequent interviews with police, she denied knowing Cole.
On Oct. 12, 2023, federal agents obtained an arrest warrant for Cole and served it at his home on East 256th Street in Euclid. While searching the house, they located the juvenile female, partially nude, in an upstairs bedroom.
U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV scheduled Cole’s sentencing for Aug. 18.
Cole faces 10 years to life in prison.