A registered sex offender from Washington has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to the sexual exploitation of ten minor girls, ages 12 to 16. James “Jake” Harrison Newcomer, 28, admitted in U.S. District Court in Seattle that he sexually abused the teens between February and April 2024 after removing his electronic monitoring device and leaving Department of Corrections Community Custody.
Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller announced the plea. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys will recommend a sentence of 17 years in prison for Newcomer when he appears before U.S. District Judge John H. Chun on November 17, 2025.
Court records show that Newcomer was under state supervision following a previous 30-month prison sentence for two counts of rape of a child. He was required to wear an ankle monitor as part of his release conditions. The monitor lost connection on January 19, 2024, and corrections officers discovered on January 25 that Newcomer had left his residence and could not be found.
During the following three months, Newcomer used social media platforms to contact various teen girls and arranged meetings with them in person. He provided drugs and alcohol to the victims before sexually assaulting them. The victims were located in several counties across Washington—King, Kitap, Snohomish, Lewis, Clark, Thurston, Spokane—as well as Woodburn, Oregon.
Newcomer pleaded guilty to one count of travel with intent to engage in sexual acts with a minor and two counts of attempted enticement of a minor. The charge of travel with intent carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison; enticement of a minor is punishable by at least ten years and up to life imprisonment.
The investigation involved multiple agencies: the FBI; police departments from Woodburn (Oregon), Auburn, Snoqualmie, Black Diamond, Des Moines, Kent; the King County Sheriff’s Office; Marion County District Attorney’s Office; and assistance from the Department of Corrections.
Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson is prosecuting the case.
“This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc,” according to officials.
