Tribune

COLFAX - A 23-year-old man will spend no additional time in jail for his role in an incident of prostitution in Pullman.

Josiah Q. Harris, a transient, pleaded guilty to second-degree attempting to promote prostitution, a gross misdemeanor, and permitting prostitution, a misdemeanor, Friday in Whitman County Superior Court. Court Commissioner Howard Neill granted Harris credit for time already served in jail since his arrest July 1, and sentenced him to one year probation.

Harris changed his plea to guilty after pleading innocent last month to a felony charge of second-degree promoting prostitution. The charges stem from an incident reported the evening of July 1, when a suspicious vehicle at the Hilltop Hotel prompted an investigation by Pullman police.

The police officer checked the Backpage website and found an advertisement for that date and place, according to court documents. A photograph included reportedly matched one of the three occupants of the vehicle, a white 2004 Hyundai Sonata.

Police discovered that Samantha N. Green, 24, a transient, had allegedly been text messaging with a man and agreed to meet him to have sex in exchange for money, according to court documents. The police officer later observed the vehicle traveling toward Pullman along State Highway 8 and initiated a traffic stop. Green, Harris and Candice Sczenski, 30, of Spokane, were arrested.

Green and Sczenski were both charged with one felony count of possession of a controlled substance (heroin). Both pleaded guilty last month, and Judge David Frazier credited both for time served in jail and released them to one year probation.