PORTLAND, Maine — A Portland man has been sentenced to four years in prison for transporting three women across state lines for the purposes of prostitution.
Samuel Gravely was also sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland to three years of probation.
The 28-year-old Gravely pleaded guilty in November to a charge of aiding and abetting interstate transportation of women for prostitution.
Prosecutors say Gravely and a friend, Fritz Blanchard, of Boston, drove three women, ages 17, 19 and 20, from Maine to Massachusetts in March 2013 intending them to work as prostitutes. They had advertised the services of two of the women in Portland online.
Blanchard was also convicted and is awaiting sentencing.