Oregon man sentenced in teen prostitution case

An Oregon City, Ore., man was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison for having sex with a 14-year-old girl from Vancouver.

Ben Allen Riggs, 64, pleaded guilty May 22 to causing a person to be transported across state lines for the purpose of prostitution.

“He is not a pedophile, and although he paid for commercial sex with other young adult women supplied by co-defendant Laura Lambden, he never requested that she supply him with a girl under the age of 18,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacie Beckerman in a sentencing memorandum.

“The tragic problem in this case is that when the 14-year-old girl showed up at his door with Ms. Lambden, he did not turn her away,” Beckerman said.

Riggs had no previous criminal history.

Despite the prosecutor’s request for a sentence of 46 months. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Jones sentenced Riggs to nearly half that time.

Laura Evet Lambden, 60, of Vancouver apparently met the 14-year-old girl through her grandchildren and then prostituted the girl to Riggs. Lambden was sentenced in September to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to transporting a person in interstate commerce for prostitution.