Man arrested for teen kidnapping

Taken into custody following routine traffic stop

MOSES LAKE — A Washington State Patrol trooper who pulled over a speeder on Interstate 90 Sunday ended up arresting a passenger for second-degree kidnapping.

Justin David Pate, 23, has been taken into custody after investigators determined that the Louisiana man was taking a 15-year-old Woodinville girl back to Baton Rouge to live with him.

According to WSP reports, the trooper pulled the 1998 Chevrolet over for a routine traffic stop shortly before 9 a.m. The teen was behind the wheel of the car and gave a false name to the trooper, but her correct birth date. She did not have any identification at the time of the arrest and has not been issued a driver's license, the WSP said.

WSP spokesman Trooper Rich Magnussen said the trooper determined through questioning that the teen was a runaway and WSP detectives soon responded to the scene near milepost 188, about nine miles east of Moses Lake.

Magnussen said the WSP has determined that Pate picked the girl up near her home in Woodinville Sunday morning. Investigators have determined that Pate met the girl in an Internet chat room in January, and were on their way back to Louisiana when they were stopped by the WSP.

Magnussen said the girl was willing to travel with Pate, and the two had made plans her her to run away with him after they started a relationship over the Internet.

The WSP is still investigating the incident, and Magnussen said they have not yet determined if Pate has a prior criminal record.

The teen's mother did not yet know that her daughter had left home when the car was pulled over, Magnussen said. The teen was initially released to Child Protective Services, but has since been released to another family member.

Magnussen said Monday that a situation like this is not very common.

"This is something that we don't run into a lot," Magnussen.

Pate has been booked into the Grant County Jail on charges of second-degree kidnapping, and the WSP said he will make his first appearance in Grant County Superior Court Tuesday.