When a 24-year-old New York man stepped off a plane at Portland International Airport in late September, someone was waiting for him -- but it wasn't the "hot" blonde he had expected.

It was a team of Portland police officers who had exchanged more than 1,000 text messages with the man, Clive Taguoa Morrison.

Morrison had thought he was talking to a 22-year-old Portland woman he was recruiting as a prostitute, but it was the officers instead, investigators say.

A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge sentenced Morrison -- who had no prior criminal history -- to a lifetime of sex offender registration.

But before approving the plea deal last week, Judge Kenneth Walker raised an eyebrow at the use of $312.95 in taxpayer money sent to Morrison to fly him to Oregon so he could be arrested.

“I feel sorry for you, falling into this thing,” Walker told Morrison last Thursday.

Clive "Tay" Morrison

Police say they hadn't set out to catch Morrison. They had been running one of their usual stings targeting johns by posting an online ad posing as a 22-year-old prostitute named "Ashley."

Morrison had responded to the ad on Aug. 2.

And from the get-go, the texts show that he told "Ashley" that he wanted her to join three other women in having him be their pimp. Police say Morrison was persistent -- far more than most pimps who unwittingly have contacted them online. Two months' worth of texts culminated in Morrison asking "Ashley" to send him money to buy a plane ticket from Queens to Portland to start selling her for sex.

Last week, as deputies escorted Morrison into a Multnomah County Circuit courtroom, Morrison still looked as if he were trying to figure out how he had ended up in handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit.

His attorney, Kasia Rutledge, said she didn’t think her client had actually aspired to be Ashley’s pimp. Nor did he fit the typical profile of a pimp, she said.

Morrison had worked in a hospital kitchen as a cook, as a truck driver for FedEx and as a construction worker, Rugledge said. And when he responded to the police bureau’s ad, he had been unemployed, bored and living at his mother’s house, she said.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kenneth Walker

He showed up to Portland International with $200 in his pocket, no extra clothes and intentions to have sex with "Ashley" and attend a Ducks football game, Rutledge said. He had always wanted to visit Oregon, Rutledge said.

“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Rutledge said. “He was in over his head, playing a stupid game, fulfilling a persona that didn’t fit him. And now he’s registering as a sex offender for the rest of his life.”

Rutledge told the judge she had wanted to fight the felony charges filed against Morrison.

“This one is a hard one for me,” Rutledge said, adding: “I’m not mad at my client for taking the plea. But I would have liked to have tried this case.”

Although Rutledge said Morrison learned much of the jargon he used in his texts from watching TV, Deputy District Attorney JR Ujifusa and the Police Bureau's human-trafficking unit say the texts speak for themselves.

“There’s absolutely no doubt he’s experienced,” said Officer Mike Gallagher. Gallagher estimated that he responded to about 20 percent of Morrison’s texts, while Officer Cara Sweeney responded to about 80 percent of them in August and September. The officers incorporated misspellings, abbreviations such as “lol” and tidbits, such as "Ashley" was shopping at Target during one texting session, all in an attempt to bring a fictitious character to life.

In Morrison’s texts:

He tells the fictitious 22-year-old that he’s an “experienced P” (which is short for pimp, police say) “with better management skills” who will “take care of you.”

He says he will show her a glamorous life by “traveling around ... to places you only see on TV” and that they should go to Las Vegas, where “hos make a lot” doing “tricks.”

“I’m not

“You can’t allow your good ho years to go to waist (sic) you need structure management and to be educated so that you can see the fruits of your labor,” Morrison continued in another text.

Morrison also tells "Ashley" that with his “proper instruction,” she can make at least $1,500 a day and that he’s “all about the money.” Police say that phrase is a common mantra among pimps.

Morrison also states outright: “I’m a PimP.”

Police say that if Morrison hadn’t invested all of that time recruiting “Ashley,” he most certainly would have victimized someone else -- a real, live person. Several Portland-area prostitutes who had posted online ads told investigators they had received the same initial text messages from Morrison.

Despite Morrison's promises that he'd treat Ashley right, police say pimps commonly turn abusive by psychologically and financially exploiting the women who work for them -- taking virtually every dollar they make.

Police also say Morrison pursued the fictitious 22-year-old with such intensity that they just couldn't ignore him. They sent him money only after he repeatedly asked for it.

That led to Thursday, when Walker, the judge, offered some commentary on the exceptional case.

“I don’t know if this is the best way for the city of Portland to be spending our money to get tickets for people to come out here for us to arrest them and send them back,” Walker said. “But that’s not my decision to make. That was apparently above my pay grade.”

Morrison was scheduled to return Monday to New York City, where he will serve five years of probation.

Morrison pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of attempting to promote prostitution. In addition to probation and sex offender registration, he was sentenced to repay the $312.95 he spent buying the plane ticket.

Gallagher, the police officer, said the convictions will put Morrison on the police radar. And for years to come, he will be watched.

“I just want to apologize to the state of Oregon,” Morrison said during his sentencing hearing, speaking so softly he was almost inaudible. “... I didn’t mean no harm. ... I’ve learned my lesson.”

-- Aimee Green