He raped and prostituted underage girls, threatened to kill mothers and their babies and trained little boys how to be gang members.
At least, that’s what police say Matthew Holt has been up to for the last few years he’s been in charge of a Lakewood gang.
The 25-year-old was charged Monday with two counts of first-degree human trafficking, one count of second-degree human trafficking and promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor.
Six other gang members were charged with similar crimes.
The South Sound Child Exploitation Task Force launched an investigation in August 2016 after officers overheard telephone calls Holt made from jail discussing prostitution.
Using phone transcripts, social media and victim accounts, the task force estimated Holt and his fellow gang members have victimized at least 15 girls and women in the last year.
The youngest appears to be 13. The oldest was in her mid-20s.
The men allegedly prostituted the victims in Tacoma, Lakewood, Olympia, Lacey and Bellingham, frequently changing motels to avoid being caught.
In one phone call from jail, Holt allegedly said he doesn’t care about women and “I don’t treat them like nothing but the (expletive) on the bottom of my shoe,” court records show.
Some of the things he’s accused of include:
▪ Assaulting one woman so badly that she fell into a seizure, which Holt then filmed.
▪ Raping a woman in front of her two children.
▪ Taking a buddy’s girlfriend to a hotel and forcing her into prostitution. He told her “if she didn’t he would kill her and leave her on the highway and implied he would also kill her baby,” records show.
▪ Tying up a woman and beating her for four hours after she asked him not to stay in her home for fear Child Protective Services would take her kids away.
▪ Teaching 9-to-11-year-old boys to break into cars.
Holt has not yet been arraigned.
He has prior convictions for second-degree robbery, intimidating a witness, tampering with a witness, attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle and obstructing a law enforcement officer.
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