TACOMA, Wash.—A 27-year-old Army sergeant from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state has pleaded guilty in federal court to sex trafficking of a child and attempted sex trafficking of a child.  Prosecutors say Sterling Hospedales set up one juvenile in a Lakewood apartment to work as a prostitute and had a second juvenile flown in from Wyoming to do the same.

Prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison, but he could get life.   Lakewood police began the investigation in April 2009, when officers found out about a juvenile runaway from Seattle who was posting Craigslist ads that said she was a prostitute. The federal Innocence Lost Task Force then found that juvenile and a second girl.

The Army is dishonorably discharging him.

Ex-immigration agent gets jail time for sex demand

NEW YORK—A New York judge has sentenced a former immigration agent to at least 18 months in prison for threatening to block a woman’s citizenship application unless she gave in to his sexual demands.

Isaac Baichu of the Bronx pleaded guilty in April to coercion, sexual misconduct and accepting a bribe.  The sentence handed down Friday calls for him to serve between 1 1/2 and 4 1/2 years.  His victim was a Colombian woman who had applied for a green card based on her marriage to an American citizen.

Prosecutors says the woman was terrified and eventually gave in, but she used a phone hidden in her purse to record the encounter.  She later gave the audio recording to Queens prosecutors and The New York Times.

Baichu was arrested three months later.