Couple Get 5 Years in the Prostitution of Teen Daughter

A transient couple who allegedly told their 13-year-old daughter to work as a prostitute to earn money for a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm were sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

Timothy McLaughlin, 27, the girl’s stepfather, and her mother, Katrina McLaughlin, 37, had pleaded guilty to three counts of making a child available for a lewd act and three counts of aiding and abetting a lewd act on a child.

Timothy McLaughlin also pleaded guilty to pimping and pandering charges at a hearing before Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan.

The girl will most likely be placed in a foster or group home, Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew S. Anderson said.

The couple were arrested in August during a police crackdown on prostitution in the Beach Boulevard and West Lincoln Avenue area of Anaheim. When authorities began questioning the teen-ager, they were shocked by what they discovered.

The teen-ager was street savvy, and had been instructed to use condoms, carry a pocketknife for protection and check identification to make sure her “client” wasn’t a police officer, officials said.

“I don’t think you can help but have an emotional reaction to something like this, especially as a parent--and I’m a parent,” Anderson said. “Basically, the child . . . wanted money for herself so she joined mom on the streets.”

The girl’s stepfather told her “that if she wanted to earn money, she could work the streets,” Anaheim Officer Brad Wagner testified during a preliminary hearing in October. “She said she got into it so she could go to Knott’s Berry Farm and to buy herself things.”

The girl had been working the streets for several weeks before the arrests, officials said.

At the time of the arrests, the girl’s mother was working as a prostitute and the couple survived on her earnings and disability checks, authorities said. Timothy McLaughlin said he felt he was acting as the girl’s protector by watching over her while she sold sex for money, officials said.

Defense attorney William G. Morrissey said the couple pleaded guilty to spare their daughter from the trauma of testifying during a trial. Morrissey said he believed the couple turned to a gritty life on the streets because they had few choices.

“I think there was a certain amount of economic necessity involved,” Morrissey said. “Basically, her mother was allowing her to do it and (her stepfather) was present to make sure nothing happened. It’s shocking, but this probably goes on every day in every big city. It was something that should not have happened, but it did.”

Morrissey stressed that his client did not make money off his stepdaughter. Police, however, testified during the earlier hearing that Timothy McLaughlin had threatened his stepdaughter and wife if they refused to work the streets, and then took their earnings from them.