A King County man is facing 17 years in federal prison after posing as a teen boy to ultimately commit sexual acts with minor girls in Snoqualmie and various other locations, including Kitsap, Snohomish, Lewis, Clark, Thurston, and Spokane counties and Woodburn, Oregon.
On Aug. 8, James “Jake” Harrison Newcomer, 28, pleaded guilty to travel with intent to engage in sexual acts with a minor and two counts of attempted enticement of a minor. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Newcomer was on state supervision following his 30-month prison sentence for two counts of rape of a child when, in January 2024, he cut off his electronic monitoring device and proceeded to meet with various minor girls, including a minor in Snoqualmie.
According to court documents, in February 2022, the Snoqualmie Police Department received a report that a 16-year-old girl was missing. It was soon thereafter discovered that the girl was picked up at her North Bend residence and provided drugs by an adult male she met on Snapchat.
According to documents, officers found that the girl was taken to the man’s home, who was identified as Newcomer, and the girl was given methamphetamine. According to documents, the girl said that she had met Newcomer on Snapchat the same day that she was picked up, and she had developed a romantic relationship with Newcomer.
According to documents, the girl knew that Newcomer was 28 years old and when she met his roommate, he told her to say she was 18 years old. According to documents, evidence showed that sexual activity occurred between the girl and Newcomer.
According to the DOJ, Newcomer admitted that after cutting off his electronic monitoring device, between February and April 2024, he sexually abused 10 different teens in Washington and Oregon, whom he met via various social media platforms. The DOJ reports that when he met with the girls, Newcomer gave the girls drugs and alcohol. The victims’ ages range from 12 to 16 years old, the DOJ said.
Travel with intent to engage in sexual acts is punishable by up to 30 years in prison, and enticement of a minor is punishable by a mandatory 10 years in prison and up to life in prison. According to the DOJ, prosecutors and the defense will recommend a 17-year sentence. Newcomer will be sentenced on Nov. 17.
According to the DOJ, the Kent and Auburn police departments were part of this investigation. Additionally, various other police departments and agencies, including the FBI, the Woodburn, Oregon Police Department, the Marion County District Attorney’s Office, the Snoqualmie Police Department, the Black Diamond Police Department, the Des Moines Police Department and the King County Sheriff’s Office were part of the investigation.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the DOJ to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
