Charge: Pimp recruited at-risk girls to strip at Seattle clubs Young man, 20, already accused of taking teen girl to Portland to strip accused of ‘scouting’ girls in Highline College program

Strip club stock art Strip club stock art Photo: Image Source/Getty Images Photo: Image Source/Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Charge: Pimp recruited at-risk girls to strip at Seattle clubs 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A Seattle-area man already accused of taking a girl to Oregon to strip there is now accused of trying to recruit a girl into prostitution while out on bond and attending college.

Kamajah Skannal caught something of a break in December. Accused of taking a runaway 17-year-old to Portland to work as a prostitute, Skannal, a 20-year-old with no criminal history, was allowed out of federal detention to continue his education.

King County prosecutors now claim that Skannal took that opportunity and used it to try to pimp another student enrolled in his Highline College program.

“The defendant then took advantage of that opportunity to immediately begin scouting and grooming girls and young women in the class,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Val Richey said in court papers.

“He specifically targeted the victim in this case who was a minor,” Richey continued. “He attempted to recruit her to strip dance at a local club and told her that she would give all the money to him.”

Skannal was belatedly arrested Monday, two weeks after King County prosecutors accused him of attempting to pimp a child. Those charges came months after federal prosecutors in Portland indicted Skannal on human trafficking-related charges stemming from an investigation into a Federal Way girl’s flight from home.

Writing in a sworn statement, an FBI special agent said the investigation was launched in April 2016 after Federal Way police received a tip that Skannal had taken his ex-girlfriend to Oregon.

Investigators were told Skannal had a group of women and girls – “Kam’s Angels” – working as prostitutes for him, the FBI agent continued. A review of Skannal’s social media accounts, which included photos of the missing girl, supported the claim.

Contacted by investigators looking for the missing teen, the manager of a Portland-area strip club said he fired her when he grew suspicious that she had presented a fake id. Investigators claim Skannal drove the women to Portland to work as prostitutes, and provided the girl with the fake id that the strip club manager found unconvincing.

“Skannal only allowed her to keep small amounts of money she earned, either tips of $1 or $5 bills,” the FBI agent said in court papers, summarizing investigators’ interviews. “She was required to give Skannal all of the other money she earned in exchange for protection and shelter.”

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Skannal had hoped that the girl would be able to work as a stripper in Portland, where, unlike Seattle, dancers aren’t required to obtain a special permit, the FBI agent said. Skannal, the agent continued, aspired to take the girl to Las Vegas as well.

The FBI joined the investigation in September as Skannal was arrested in Milton. Investigators claim he was armed with a stolen .45-cal. pistol when police arrested him. He remained jailed until late last year, when he was released at the defense’s request.

Writing the court, Assistant Federal Public Defender Susan Wilk said the evidence indicates the 17-year-old is a longtime acquaintance and former classmate of Skannal’s who went to Oregon of her own accord.

“All available information suggests that (she) traveled to Oregon to work in a strip club voluntarily, and provided the money she earned to Mr. Skannal in exchange for shelter, food, protection and other needs voluntarily,” Wilk said in a December statement to the court.

A Portland grand jury indicted Skannal on a single count of transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity in October. If convicted, Skannal could join his father Rico Skannal in federal prison, where the elder Skannal is currently serving a 10-year prison term for pimping a Portland woman out of an Edmonds hotel.

Skannal was released from federal detention in part to attend a Highline College program aimed at criminally involved youths. It wasn’t long before the U.S. Pretrial Services probation officer monitoring Skannal voiced concerns about the young man’s participation in the program.

In March, the probation officer and school staff met to discuss his concerns that Skannal was recruiting other students to work as prostitutes for him.

Several Federal Way Police Department detectives who investigated the 17-year-old girl’s disappearance attended that Highline College meeting. In a sworn statement, one detective said college staff reported that Skannal was widely known as a pimp. He is alleged to have told one class that other students “need to be taxing these brods” – taking a cut of prostitution earnings.

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One staff member told investigators Skannal appeared to be “grooming” girls and young women in the program for prostitution, the Federal Way detective said in court papers. Skannal held himself out as a “protector and provider,” the college staffer told investigators, and bragged about his Audi car.

Investigators learned that Skannal had taken a particular interest in one girl in the class, the Federal Way detective said. The girl, then 17, is alleged to have told police Skannal asked her to work as an exotic dancer for him.

“She told Skannal that she was only 17 years old,” the detective said in court papers. “Skannal told her that he would take her to get a dancing license so that she could strip in the club and pay for an identification for her.”

Wilk, Skannal’s federal public defender, disputed the contention that Highline College staff believed Skannal was recruiting students into prostitution.

“It was not felt that he was doing that,” one administrator said, according to the defense attorney’s statement. “Students will often have contact with each other outside of class. We were acknowledging that we do not know. We were not saying that he was doing that.”

Skannal has been charged with attempted promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor. He is currently held at King County Jail on $300,000 bail. The federal charge remains outstanding in U.S. District Court for Oregon.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.