Law enforcement and escort NEWS
ARCHIVE - Posted in 2006 and 2007

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A sting operation where police set up an escort service to snare men looking for sex resulted in the arrest of 33 men -- a few of them notable names in Jacksonville.
Channel 4's Emily Pantelides learned of the arrests -- all men charged with soliciting a prostitute. "It actually was a three-day operation," said John Hartley, assistant chief of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. "It was Internet-related and newspaper-related, where we had decoys posing as escorts in a local hotel."Among those arrested was Frank Morandi, 43, who until Thursday was a teacher and coach at The Bolles School.
According to the arrest report, Morandi contacted a person he thought was a prostitute over the telephone and over the Internet. The private school told Channel 4 that Morandi turned in his resignation, effective immediately. Another person arrested in the sting is Paul McDavid, 37, a lieutenant with the Jacksonville Fire Department. He did not return Channel 4's phone call on Thursday. "I believe the families of these men are victims," Hartley said. "They're leading a secret life."
Among those arrested include an Brian Dunmore, a Yale University graduate who listed him employer as the PGA Tour, and Robert Handmaker, who owns Cruiser's Grill at the beach. According to the police report, Handmaker brought a pair of panties and asked the woman she thought was a prostitute to put them on.
Others facing the misdemeanor charge of soliciting include an employee of Duval County schools and two Navy men. "I wish to say that we never catch people who are preachers doctors or lawyers or policeman or fireman, but I am telling you, this affects every walk of life." According to the reports, one man, Jefferson Miclat, resisted arrest and police used a Taser gun on him before he was taken into custody.
Detectives said this roundup should send a message to anyone considering approaching someone intending to pay for sex. "When you stop and go out on the street, it may be one of our decoys, so beware," Hartley said.
Copyright 2007 by News4Jax.com.
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Judge Makes Men Wear Suit, Hold Sign
A Painesville, Ohio, judge does. Judge Mike Cicconetti ordered three men who were busted in a sex sting to put on chicken costumes. The men must take turns wearing a bright yellow, feathered get-up outside the courthouse with a sign saying "No Chicken Ranch in Painesville."
The slogan is a take off of the movie, "The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas." The brothel in the movie was known as the Chicken Ranch because during the Depression customers were allowed to pay with poultry."
The men were arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer. While prostitution is legal in some parts of Nevada, it's not in Ohio.
In exchange for the chicken punishment, the judge suspended 30-day jail sentences for each of the men.
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BRADENTON, Fla. -- Three officers have resigned after an investigation revealed they had had sex with prostitutes and some exchanged drugs for the encounters, police said Wednesday.
Former police officers Pete Biddlecome, William Anderson and Larry Jeff Pritchett all resigned in June over the allegations. Pritchett and Biddlecome had been assigned to the department's Safe Streets Unit, in which undercover officers fight prostitution and drugs. Anderson was a patrol officer.
Prostitute Dawn Marie Gibson passed a lie-detector test of her claims that she had sex with Biddlecome and another police officer in a police substation and a police car. She also claimed she had sex with Pritchett several times in exchange for drugs and money.
Biddlecome admitted he had sex with Gibson in a rental car in 2005, which was used for undercover work, according to police documents. Gibson's friend and fellow prostitute Sarah Wysocki said she had sex with Anderson in a police substation, the reports said. Authorities also were investigating whether the officers' supervisors knew about the conduct, Chief Michael Radzilowski said.
Biddlecome told The Herald of Bradenton that he did not know Gibson was a prostitute. He said he found out a year after she was arrested for prostitution. "I am a good cop that made a stupid mistake," Biddlecome told the newspaper. "I told the truth and am dealing with the consequences. I regret what I did, everyday."
Captain Russell Tibbitts said the agency strives to be professional and responsive to the community. "This is a very unfortunate event. The three accused officers no longer work here," Tibbitts said.
A woman answering the telephone at a listing for Pritchett said it was the wrong number. A telephone number for Anderson could not be located.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.
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Officials Arrest More Than 130 Prostitutes, Pimps
More than 130 people were arrested last week in the Bay Area during "Operation Strikeout," which targeted pimps, prostitutes and their customers during Major League Baseball's All-Star game in San Francisco.
Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren said during a news conference Monday that the sting was employed from July 6-12 because prostitutes tend to show up in areas that are hosting high-profile events, such as All-Star games.
More than 10 agencies teamed up during in the sting -- which included officials conducting undercover operations, posing as prostitutes and engaging in Internet rings. The operation resulted in 131 arrests, including 46 in San Francisco and 40 in Oakland.
Among those arrested were four girls under the age of 18. One of the minors arrested by the South San Francisco police department brought her 8-month-old baby with her to work.
Nola Brantley, the director of Oakland's Sexually and Commercially Exploited Youth Program, said she has seen in an increase in the number of underage prostitutes in recent years, and that these girls tend to work for violent pimps.
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The Special Operations Unit began its second prostitution operation in less than a week on Wednesday. Four people were arrested on prostitution charges, and three others were arrested on charges of selling cocaine.During the operation, detectives also seized 0.13 grams of crack cocaine and 1 gram of marijuana.
Linda Jean Diamond, 47, Maria Lucille Kinser, 44, Valerie Ann Rittenhouse, 46, and Amanda Elizabeth McGuire, 25, were all charged with prostitution. Rittenhouse was additionally charged with possession of cocaine and tampering with evidence.
Antwan Walter Gray, 22, Star Amorita Brown, 43, and Nina Yockel, 30, were each charged with sale and delivery of cocaine and other related charges.
All seven were booked at the Melbourne Police Department then transported to the Brevard County Jail.
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The recent raids at several brothels are shedding light on a serious problem. Authorities say Las Vegas is one of the worst cities in the world for sex trafficking and they promise these raids won't be the last. Cruise down certain Las Vegas streets and you're bound to find hookers trolling for johns. For many of these women, sex is part of the allure of this city. But away from the bright lights and openness of the Las Vegas streets are places in residential areas -- homes turned bordellos -- where women are smuggled and kept as sex slaves. They're not working in the world's oldest profession by choice. But rather, they are victims in a criminal ring that's exploding in Las Vegas.
Terri Miller is the director of Metro's Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery, which formed in February of this year. "We feel there are human trafficking elements that exist," she said.
There's a reason that task force (Operation Dollhouse) is now active. "Las Vegas is known to be one of seventeen cities that is at high risk for human trafficking because of the nature of Las Vegas, because of the sex industry that exists here," Miller continued.
A new campaign exposing human trafficking is being launched in Las Vegas. Law enforcement agencies say they are serious. They're not just going after pimps and others allegedly involved in prostitution rings. They're crackdowns could lead to the arrests of those who do business with the underground outfits.
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A special San Francisco task force designed to combat human trafficking has closed 17 massage parlors suspected of forcing immigrant Asian women into sex work.
In the past 18 months, a team of undercover police officers, along with city fire, building and environmental health inspectors, has been conducting surprise inspections of suspected erotic massage parlors.
The 17 Asian massage parlors were closed after incurring at least three health and safety violations within a year. Four others were fined, suspended and allowed to reopen after a temporary closure. Two others closed voluntarily.
But a handful of parlors shut by the city have since reopened illegally, and one has applied for a new permit as an acupuncture clinic with massage.
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The women came mostly from Mexico and Central America. When they arrived in Minnesota, the women had their passports and other identifying documents taken away and they were forced into a world of prostitution. In one night, two women serviced more than 80 men in a south Minneapolis house.
On Monday, in what might be one of the biggest such cases in Minnesota, 25 people were charged in federal court with running eight brothels. Eighteen of the suspects are illegal immigrants, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court. Five of the brothels operated in Minneapolis and the others were in Richfield, West St. Paul and Austin, Minn., according to the indictment.
"The leaders of this prostitution ring ... are responsible for the bondage and sex slavery of women, an intolerable condition in a twenty-first century America," U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose said at a news conference. Major state law enforcement leaders also were there.
The charges stem from arrests made Saturday during high-profile raids near Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue S. in south Minneapolis. Nineteen men and six women were charged. All had surnames that appeared to be of Hispanic origin. Paulose said she could not reveal the countries of origin of the accused and the victims.
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What happens in Vegas doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas after all.
San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks and his undersheriff were swept up in Las Vegas prostitution sting over the weekend while at a massage parlor suspected of being a brothel, authorities said Tuesday. Munks called the incident a "personal embarrassment" and apologized to sheriff's officials, the county and his family for his "lack of personal judgment." He denied any wrongdoing, however, as did Undersheriff Carlos Bolanos. Munks, who was sworn in as sheriff in January, was in the massage parlor at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, and Bolanos was somewhere on the property when authorities raided the establishment, which was run out of a private home that had no name and no signage, Las Vegas police Lt. Dave Logue said. Munks said Bolanos was outside when the raid took place.
It was one of several raids of suspected brothels over the weekend. Neither Munks nor Bolanos was arrested.
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The last of eight people investigators believe was involved in a Brownsville brothel was arrested Tuesday night.
A man investigators believe acted as a doorman at a Brownsville brothel was arrested today.
Two more Pensacola women have been arrested in connection with a Brownsville brothel.
A fourth Pensacola women has been arrested in connection with a Brownsville brothel.
Three Pensacola women have been arrested in connection with a Brownsville brothel.
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Dallas: Possible links to human trafficking suspected in case 12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, April 19, 2007 By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News On its Web site, Nagoya Body Bath advertises that it's just a few short miles from downtown. Prices range from $40 to $60. A coupon, featuring a skimpily attired Asian woman, offers 11 percent off for services such as body shampoo and oriental lotion touch. But authorities say far more was going on behind closed doors than massages and spa treatments at the Mockingbird Lane establishment.
At 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dallas police, the district attorney's office and federal agencies raided Nagoya Body Bath and seven other businesses that authorities say were operating as brothels and have possible links to human trafficking. Some of the spas have been linked to one another, but authorities declined to give further details.
At an afternoon news conference, District Attorney Craig Watkins said he expected to file first-degree felony charges in connection with the investigation. "We want to make the cost of doing business so high that these folks decide that they don't want to do this business," Mr. Watkins said. "We plan on vigorously prosecuting these individuals. We want to send a message to the community that we're not going to tolerate this in Dallas County."
Twenty-seven women were detained during the raids, and 19 have since been released. One woman who was detained has been identified as a possible victim of human trafficking. Several women, all South Korean, were being held for immigration reasons. Police said they were trying to determine if any of the other detainees were human trafficking victims. Four of the detained women have since been arrested on warrants related to the investigation. Authorities have arrest warrants for nine others. Police seized cash totaling about $35,665 during the raids.
Wednesday's raids were similar to those carried out in August 2005 on a group of eight Asian spas that resulted in the detention of 42 sex workers. That crackdown was part of an extensive investigation that stretched from brothels in Dallas to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Three reputed Dallas kingpins went to federal prison last year for their roles in the criminal enterprise that brought South Korean women to town from Seoul, Los Angeles and New York, among other locales.
Those raids generated concerns from victims' advocates critical of the government's handling of the prostitutes' fight for legal protection as human-trafficking victims. In that case, many of the women were working in indentured conditions, servicing up to a dozen customers a day. But on Wednesday, Bill Bernstein, deputy director of Dallas-based Mosaic Family Services, gave credit to law enforcement agencies for their efforts to identify victims after the morning raids. "Law enforcement certainly was willing to look at the women who were taken into custody as potential victims," he said. "They went at it with that perspective." Mosaic, part of the North Texas Anti-Trafficking Team, worked with agencies to help screen victims and offer assistance. "Determining if someone is truly a victim is very detailed, hard work," Mr. Bernstein said.
Dallas police Deputy Chief Julian Bernal said Wednesday's raids and the earlier stings are part of an ongoing effort to crack down on houses of prostitution. He said authorities would continue to target seven or eight spas at a time for such raids. "We can only do so many investigations on so many places at one time," Chief Bernal said. "They're very lengthy investigations. They're very time-consuming."
Rather than using a piecemeal strategy of tackling single prostitution cases, authorities are taking a comprehensive approach and involving agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A main component is ensuring that the business and its assets are seized, as was the case in the 2005 raids. "As long as there are businesses that are masquerading as legitimate businesses and that are in the business of providing sex acts for money, we're going to target them in this fashion," Chief Bernal said. To obtain arrest and search warrants, Dallas vice officers gathered evidence of prostitution at the eight businesses that were raided Wednesday.
For example, the price for sexual acts ranged from $100 to $200 at Oasis Body Bath on Mockingbird Lane, according to court records. Between January 2005 and April 16, undercover officers went to the business five separate times and made arrangements to pay for sexual acts. In a September 2006 interview, a confidential informant who worked at the spa told police that the owner of the business worked as a prostitute along with the other women.
# Nagoya Body Bath 1710 W. Mockingbird, Suite A
# Oasis Body Bath 1710 W. Mockingbird, Suite B
# Venus Body Bath 8300 Harry Hines, Suite A
# Caesar’s Body Bath 8300 Harry Hines, Suite B
# Asian Tan 2001 W. Northwest Highway, #110
# Tokyo Sauna Spa 11076 Harry Hines, Suite B
# Julia Body Bath 11181 Denton Drive, Suite 110
# Royal Sauna and Bath 2691 Freewood Drive, Suite B
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CHICAGO, Ill. (CBS 2) -- A Berkeley teenager has been arrested and charged with keeping a house of prostitution in suburban Hillside after a police discovered a posting advertising sex services on the Craig’s List Web site.
Kimberly Peterson, 17, of Berkeley, is being charged as an adult in the case. A second woman, 27-year-old Heidi Mudge of Minneapolis, was also arrested and charged with prostitution.
After viewing the Web site, police called the number advertised and were directed to a residence at 5710 Hawthorne Ave., which is the border street between Hillside and Berkeley.
When an undercover detective entered the residence, a woman allegedly agreed to perform a sex act on him for $300.
Gregory Potapczak, age 48, of Schererville, Ind., was also arrested and charged with solicitation of a prostitute.
All three suspects have been released on bond pending court dates in May.
© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Worries over prostitution, other unsavory elements kick in as Sundance nears
As Park City gears up for the Sundance Film Festival, its police force is cracking down on prostitution. In reaction to what police say is an overall up-tick in sex-for-hire at Utah's top-drawing ski destination, the Park City Council has amended its sexually oriented business ordinance. Since Dec. 14, all escort-services employees are required to obtain business licenses - just in time for Robert Redford's independent film gala that launches Jan. 18. "Any time we have large numbers of people in town, [the escort] business is probably going to jump," said Lt. Rick Ryan. And the film festival is, by far, Park City's biggest event of the year, drawing people from around the globe. During the 2006 film fest, police triggered three sting operations after calling escort services. Those operations led to seven arrests for "sex for hire" - a class A misdemeanor. Park City police have never launched an escort sting without making a bust. "We have a 100 percent arrest rate," Ryan said. "For the most part, this is a front for prostitution." (more at website link)

Boise Police have arrested a local strip club owner and charged him with owning and operating a prostitution ring.
Police says 39-year-old Chris Teague was using an escort service as a front for prostitution.
He was arrested at his Boise home this afternoon and charged with four counts of accepting the earnings of a prostitute, a felony in Idaho.
The police investigation began with a lead about eight months ago. Officers believe the operation has been in business for the past two years under the name AAA Anytime Escort Services.
Teague is also the owner of two adult night clubs -- Erotic City at 5781 W. Overland Road; and Night Moves at 4348 W. State Street.
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Ensnared as French police crack down on ski resort prostitution ring
One of Russia’s wealthiest men, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, was taken into custody by French police in a crackdown on a suspected prostitution ring at a swank Alpine ski resort, officials said Thursday.
Investigators suspect Russian call girls were brought to the resort in Courchevel, a favored playground of Russia’s rich, to work during the winter holidays, authorities said. Clients allegedly paid the women with gifts from luxury boutiques.
A total of 26 people were taken in for questioning Tuesday, Prosecutor Xavier Richaud said. As of Thursday, 15 — including Prokhorov — were still being held in the southeast city of Lyon, officials close to the investigation said. (more at website link)

Clients targeted in call-girl case
A man from Atlanta and another from Kennesaw are the first named in publicly released arrest warrants connected to the so-called Mansion Madame prostitution case in Gwinnett County.
Police said in a statement issued Thursday that the men were notified late Wednesday of the warrants and have been asked to surrender on misdemeanor pandering charges. They are Daniel M., 32, of Atlanta, and 56-year-old Alexander "Billy" R. of Kennesaw, said Cpl. K. Darren Moloney, a Gwinnett police spokesman.
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Behind the gates of Sugarloaf Country Club reside corporate CEOs, physicians, airline pilots and professional athletes. But at 2800 Sugarloaf Club Drive lives a former Penthouse Pet who, police allege, is a high-dollar call girl.
Lisa Ann Taylor, 42, also a local real estate agent, was arrested at her home Wednesday afternoon and charged with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, prostitution, keeping a place of prostitution and conspiracy to possess cocaine, said District Attorney Danny Porter.
She was transported to the Gwinnett County Detention Center, where she was still being held as of Wednesday night on a $27,900 bond, said an official at the detention center.
Her alleged partner, Nicole A. Probert, 30, of 435 Silverthorne Drive in Lawrenceville, also a real estate agent, was arrested on the same charges and taken to the detention center. Probert was still incarcerated Wednesday night.
Both are suspected of participating in "high-end" acts of prostitution both in Gwinnett and in other states nationwide, said Porter, who attributes the arrests to a tip given to his office by the Gwinnett Daily Post.
Taylor, who goes by the name Melissa Wolf on the site, boasts that she is "North America's Most Published Centerfold and one of Penthouse Magazine's Most Published Pets" on her personal Web site.
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A search of the World Wide Web results in two completely different profiles for Lisa Taylor. Taylor, along with Nicole Probert, faces prostitution, drug and racketeering charges after a bust Wednesday by the Gwinnett County Police Department and the District Attorney's office.
A Google search for Lisa Taylor, real estate, brings up a profile of Taylor as a real estate agent. Here, Taylor introduces herself to prospective clients as a real estate agent specializing in new homes and real estate for sale in Buford, Dacula, Duluth, Grayson, Gwinnett County, Georgia and surrounding areas.
The language is a bit different on Taylor's Web site regarding her appearances in Penthouse and other adult magazines and videos. A search of The Erotic Review for Melissa Wolf, the name police allege Taylor moonlights under as a call girl, links to melissawolf.com. There, "Wolf," introduces herself as North America's most published centerfold and one of Penthouse Magazine's most published pets."
"Wolf" also boasts appearances in Penthouse videos, more than two dozen XXX films as well as some "B" cult horror flicks and contends she was "also voted by my piers (sic) the lifetime achievement award and the hall of fame award by the Exotic Dancer Industry Pioneers Exotic Dancer Magazine in 2000."
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Chicago police said they discovered a hidden videotaping system during a search of a massage parlor where four people were arrested on prostitution charges.
Police spokesman Pat Camden said the camera equipment was discovered last Thursday, one day after officers made the arrests while responding to an anonymous phone request for a well-being check, The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.
Camden said police believe the equipment was used to secretly videotape sex acts and broadcast them on the Internet.
He said the four people arrested for "acts of prostitution" were charged with misdemeanors.
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GRONINGEN - De police in Groningen goes self show as a customer of prostitutes. Agents will check 'undercover' the escortwereld, wanted to know as a spokesman Tuesday. „We post a hotel room and order a dame”, according to the informant. If the woman arrives to spot, we work out her license and identity.
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An overnight prostitution sting operation brought 13 arrests, police said Saturday.
The sting, near Sepulveda Boulevard and Rayen Street, began about 8 p.m. Friday and ended about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Undercover female officers posed as prostitutes and arrested those who stopped and solicited them for sex.
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Police in Bucks County have charged 12 women after an investigation into prostitutes who allegedly have been advertising on the Web site Craigslist.
After police received a tip in August about alleged prostitutes advertising on the site, investigators called cell phone numbers in local listings that advertised "GFEs" _ girlfriend experiences _ asking for payment in "ro$e$" or "125 donations."
The undercover investigators agreed to meet the women at motels, and almost all 12 were arrested within two minutes, he said.
Several of the women who were arrested had brought along their boyfriends, and five men were arrested on drug charges, police said.
Similar sting operations have led to prostitution charges against women in states including Maryland, New York, Oregon and New Hampshire.
Craigslist spokeswoman Sue MacTavish Best said the site cooperates with law enforcement and has a flagging system that allows users to bring prohibited content to the company's attention so it can be removed.
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Dressed in a revealing halter-top, the 28-year-old woman sits in handcuffs on a motel-room bed in Des Plaines, Ill. Nearby, undercover police officers examine her modern-day tool of the trade: an Apple iBook.
"Show us your Web site," demands Cmdr. Matt Hicks. "We know you are on there."
Such encounters underscore the new public face of an old profession. Instead of flashing their skin on a street corner, women can work from a motel, armed with a cellphone and a laptop computer.
Traditionally, prostitutes who billed themselves as escorts advertised in alternative weeklies, entertainment-oriented magazines and other publications. Now a simple Web site can be launched for less than the price of a print ad, authorities say.
"The Internet is the street corner of the 21st Century," said Sgt. Gary Darrow, head of special investigations for the Schaumburg (Ill.) Police Department. "It's easy, it's anonymous and it's free."
As a result, police throughout the suburbs say the Web is fueling a prostitution business that is both difficult to detect and hard to enforce.
Across the country, police are focusing on the Internet. In Pennsylvania, 12 women were recently charged with prostitution after an investigation into advertisements they posted online. Similar stings have been conducted in San Francisco, Baltimore, Oklahoma City and elsewhere.
In the suburbs, prostitution arrests are few and far between. The time and effort it takes to execute a successful bust, combined with the limited resources of many suburban departments, have long kept prostitution low on the list of priorities, some suburban police officials admit.
Police in Des Plaines, for example, handled more than 150 reports about prostitution in 2005 but made only three arrests, according to Hicks, who said that unless investigators conduct an undercover sting, it's difficult to gather enough evidence to press charges.
Prostitution is a Class A misdemeanor, so the end often doesn't justify the means, police say. "To get a felony (charge), you'll have to go get her again" through a repeat offense, said Elgin Police Sgt. Jeff Adam. "That means you are essentially burning an undercover officer and an undercover car. Sure, a prostitution bust is exciting (but) ... it's not always worth the effort."
Many prostitutes flock to motels in Des Plaines and other suburbs because of the proximity to O'Hare International Airport and major expressways, police said. Compared with Chicago, the suburbs offer less-expensive motel rooms - and smaller police departments.
It's impossible, authorities say, to calculate how many prostitutes are working in the area, but they estimate there are hundreds. Records show they are both local and from out-of-state - with driver's licenses listing residences in Texas, Las Vegas, Virginia, New York, Minnesota and Michigan, among other places.
Several members of the Cook County sheriff's vice unit are assigned to prostitution cases, with officers regularly scanning the Internet, spokeswoman Penny Mateck said. Arrest records from several Chicago-area suburban police departments show that nearly all of the alleged prostitutes advertised on the Internet. And with some exceptions, most worked out of modest motels.
Robyn Few, founder of the San Francisco-based Sex Workers Outreach Project, said suburban prostitution rings are run in ways similar to any small independent business. "The Internet gave women and men a tool to become their own boss," she said. "I look at prostitutes as entrepreneurs. People go into business for themselves."
Many prostitutes tour the country, staying in a motel in or near a city for one to two weeks at a time, Few said. Others work out of their homes or for regional sex services that use computers to advertise, land clients and make appointments. "They have elaborate screening systems where they can virtually keep police out," Few said. "You need references, a number. The smart girls aren't getting busted."
One popular Web site within the sex trade, police say, is Craigslist, a top online marketplace that allows users to list items for sale - everything from cars to concert tickets. There's also a section for "erotic services," where messages and racy pictures are routinely posted alongside offers of sex. To appear legal, the prostitutes request donations in return for services. "At this moment there are 55 people alone selling sex in Des Plaines on Craigslist," Hicks said recently. "We check."
Jim Buckmaster, chief executive officer of Craigslist, said the erotic services were added to the Web site at the request of users as a place for legal escort services and massage parlors. The users bear the burden of reporting inappropriate or illegal ads to site operators, he said. "Experts will tell you that it is often very difficult to know by reading a given ad whether the service being advertised is legal," Buckmaster wrote in an e-mail. He said Craigslist can't monitor each of the more than 10 million listings posted every month. "We do not want illegal prostitution on Craigslist and are more than willing to assist law enforcement in their efforts to curtail it," Buckmaster wrote.
The industry thrives on young girls, many of whom are forced or coerced into prostitution and become victims of violence, abuse, exploitation and homelessness, said Brenda Myers-Powell, an organizer of the Prostitution Alternative Roundtable, launched by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. "Most people when you say prostitution, they think of (the movie) `Pretty Woman,'" she said. "That's not the case. This comes from kids, young girls, who don't have much choice in the matter." Many of the women get wrapped up in drugs, which goes hand in hand with prostitution, she said. In the case of the woman arrested in Des Plaines, police also questioned a 65-year-old man who was found sitting in a car outside the hotel. "I've never been here before now," the man said, admitting he was the woman's next appointment. "It was on the Internet. It said $160." The man wasn't arrested because he did not solicit the woman - police got to her first. "Thanks for the lesson," he said.
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Police arrested 10 women along Mobile Highway and the West South Boulevard Friday night with the help of undercover officers.
So, are prostitution stings really working?
At least three of the women arrested in the recent bust were arrested for the same crime last month. Many residents of Montgomery know the sex trade has been a problem in that area of the city for some time.
The first crackdown on prostitution along the Southern Boulevard and Mobile Highway this year came in response fed-up business owners in the area.
Montgomery police made more that 20 prostitution arrests since August, but to the casual observer, their efforts have in no way curbed the illegal sex trade along this strip.
Business owner, Nash Patakh, says, "I don't see an immediate solution because this problem has been in this area for quite a long time."
A mother of two arrested in late August for prostitution shed light on one part of the problem while defending her lifestyle.
When asked why she chose to sell herself, Maria McElya told WSFA 12 News, "because it's my choice, it's my life, it's the way I choose to live. Because I'm on crack and when you're on crack you don't care about anything."
Friday, McElya was back in jail a second time in less than three weeks along with nine other women, but for how long is unknown.
Montgomery Police Chief, Art Baylor, says, "We arrest them. Basically after the testimony, we're through with it. It's up to the other part of the criminal justice system after that."
Since prostitution is a misdemeanor, the municipal judges must grant bond, which means many offenders are back on the streets within hours.
One solution would be making prostitution a felony, which could help to keep these kind of offenders in jail longer.
All except two of the suspects arrested Friday have previous prostitution and drug related charges.
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City police say they've seen a steady increase in both complaints and arrests over the years. Their efforts to curb the problem are hampered by the transient nature of the crime and a tendency for prostitutes to return to the activity after being released from jail.
In the past five years, the number of prostitution arrests in the city's problem areas has climbed from 82 in 2001 to 113 in 2005, said Gene Allen, coordinator for the Weed & Seed neighborhood-improvement program, which helps fund the Utica Police Department's tactical efforts.
In response, Utica officers have stepped up efforts to address complaints, said Deputy Police Chief Pasquale Benzo. As a result, the department's Tactical and Community Policing units have increased the number of undercover sting operations that nab the prostitutes and those who patronize them.
Yet the problem persists. It just moves around, law enforcement officials agreed.
Benzo acknowledged simply arresting prostitutes doesn't seem to deter them from returning to the streets, particularly those who are selling their bodies to feed a drug addiction.
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Pasco police arrest four men who thought they were picking up a prostitute, but it turns out the hooker's handcuffs also came with a badge.
Over the years, in downtown Pasco, police have arrested a lot of men pulling out their pocket books for prostitutes. Officers made four more arrests there Saturday night, but police said it's not as bad as it used to be.
Men willing to pay money for sex know the downtown area is the place to do it. Local businesses have complained about it. Saturday night Pasco Police disguised an officer as a prostitute to catch men in the act and made four arrests.
That may seem like a lot to some, but police said they used to arrest many more. "If we were sitting here speaking here 10 years ago you'd see arrests somewhere in the 20 mark for one night," said Capt. Jim Raymond, Pasco Police Department. Now, on average, police make only one prostitution arrest a month. Compare that to the mid 1990's when officers arrested 100 people a year, it's quite a drop off. And local business owners said police have a done a fantastic job getting rid of the problem.
"Compared to then and now it's a 100% difference. We have a lot cleaner streets, a lot neater people and people feel a lot safer," Jack Van Dinter, The Library Tavern. "Now I don't worry about it. They caught up, that shows they're doing a good job. It's less on my worries," said Cel Gonzalez, Ace Barber Shop.
But police said they can't take all the credit. They said one big reason downtown Pasco is safer, many questionable businesses have left. With the addition of the Pasco Farmer's Market, downtown streets are more family friendly.
"The whole dynamics of that downtown area has been a change to the good," said Capt. Jim Raymond.
Police said now instead of having to drive prostitutes out, all they have to do is make routine checks to keep these streets safe.
(more at website link)

Police in Bucks County have charged 12 women after an investigation into prostitutes who allegedly have been advertising on the Web site Craigslist.
After police received a tip in August about alleged prostitutes advertising on the site, investigators called cell phone numbers in local listings that advertised "GFEs" - girlfriend experiences - asking for payment in "ro$e$" or "125 donations."
The undercover investigators agreed to meet the women at motels, and almost all 12 were arrested within two minutes, he said.
Several of the women who were arrested had brought along their boyfriends, and five men were arrested on drug charges, police said.
Similar sting operations have led to prostitution charges against women in states including Maryland, New York, Oregon and New Hampshire.
Craigslist spokeswoman Sue MacTavish Best said the site cooperates with law enforcement and has a flagging system that allows users to bring prohibited content to the company's attention so it can be removed.
(more at website link)

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit teamed up with the Fort Myers Police Department Special Investigations Group yesterday afternoon and last night and made a sweep of street-level prostitutes and their johns, the sheriff's office reports.

The operation was conducted during the late afternoon and evening hours in numerous areas of Lee County utilizing undercover detectives, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.

The following individuals were arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for Solicitation For Prostitution, a second degree misdemeanor (unless otherwise indicated).
(more and names at website link)

Hypnotherapist and taxi driver Thomas William Ledo promised in an online directory that the "massage technicians" at his St. Paul parlor would "help you relax, clean out physical toxins, and release physical and emotional stress."
In a criminal complaint filed Thursday, Ramsey County authorities claimed Ledo did much more than that. He is accused of promoting prostitution after an undercover St. Paul policeman received a massage from a topless woman who offered to perform a sexual act on him.
Ledo, 60, was being held on $5,000 bond. Promoting prostitution is a felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison or a $30,000 fine, or both, if convicted. The criminal complaint claims Ledo operates Serenity Hypnosis & Massage Therapy in the 1300 block of White Bear Avenue. He lives a few doors down. In various online directories, Ledo lists himself as a "certified hypnotherapist and massage therapist," as well as a martial-arts teacher, motivational speaker, musician and entertainer. St. Paul police checked with the city's licensing office and found there was no license for massage therapy issued for the White Bear Avenue address but that Ledo, using the name Scott Thomas Daniels, did have a taxi permit.
Police said they had been getting complaints about alleged prostitution near the address for nearly a year. The investigation began in earnest, however, after a man called the St. Paul police vice unit and said he believed "his ex-wife was prostituting herself for her new husband," who was identified as Ledo, the complaint says. The caller was concerned about the welfare of his children when they were with their mother.
Investigators noted that an ad in the "Erotic Massage" section of the Aug. 2 edition of the weekly City Pages newspaper carried the same phone number Ledo listed on his lease for his business. On Aug. 9, an officer called the number and set up an appointment.
The police complaint says a woman told the undercover officer that a "full body massage" would cost $85 an hour if done by one woman, or $125 an hour if done by two. During the subsequent massage, the undercover officer claimed the woman was topless, rubbed her bare breasts against his body "and massaged his private parts." The woman allegedly told the man there was no "full sex," but that she would perform a sexual act on him. The officer declined but made a second appointment for a two-woman massage, the complaint said. When the women brought up the subject of sex, police moved in and arrested the two women.
The women told police that Ledo took 60 percent of what they made, a split corroborated by Ledo himself, the police complaint says.
(more at website link)

Law enforcement officials announced today the arrest of 31 individuals linked to an international human-trafficking ring operating throughout the Northeast. Officials said they had also taken 67 possible victims of trafficking — all young Korean women — into protective custody. It is believed that the young women were brought to the United States illegally and forced to work as prostitutes in a network of at least 20 brothels.
“This exploitation is not a back-alley business,” said Michael Garcia, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. “It happens in residential areas of our nation’s capital, it happens in the West 20’s in New York City,” he said.
Many of the brothels, officials said, were fronted by seemingly legitimate businesses, like massage parlors, health spas and acupuncture clinics, including the Crystal Spa on West Avenue in Norwalk, Conn., and Cleveland Park Holistic Health on Connecticut Avenue Northwest in Washington. One brothel was found on West 26th Street and another on 59th Street in Manhattan.
Recruiters who worked for the trafficking ring would go to Korea in search of women who wanted to come to the United States and either supply them with false documents to travel to the country or smuggled them across United States borders with Mexico or Canada, officials said.
Once delivered to a brothel, managers would typically take away their identification and travel documents and threaten to turn them into the authorities if they attempted to leave or to harm their families remaining in Korea, officials said. The women were forced to work to pay off tens of thousands of dollars of debt they had accumulated during their travel from Korea.
In some of the brothels, officials said, there were special rooms or compartments where the women could be hidden in case of a raid by law enforcement on the establishment.
Arrests began Tuesday morning of not only brothel owners and managers, but also middlemen, who worked as drivers, and others who helped illegally remit some of the money the women earned back to Korea, officials said.
The arrests are related to the breakup in March of a brothel in Flushing, Queens, where earlier this year an undercover New York Police Department detective discovered business had flourished under the protection of two veteran police officers who accepted bribes from the brothel owners. Those officers were charged with public corruption offenses and are awaiting prosecution in federal district court in Brooklyn.
Following those arrests, officials obtained a court-authorized wiretap of a cell phone used by Tae Hoon Kim, a Flushing-based middleman and transporter. That wire-tap led to the discovery of a network of Korean-owned brothels.
Officials will interview the 67 women in protective custody to determine if they were indeed victims of human trafficking — in other words that they did not knowingly enter into the prostitution ring. They will work with those women who were to grant them short-term immigration relief. Later, alongside non-governmental organizations, they will assist those women in pursuing legal options for obtaining longer-term status, said Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But, she said, that interview process can be lengthy. “These are women who have been mentally and physically broken down in every way possible in order to achieve a mental state in which they can no longer fight against their captors or try to escape,” she said. “They are scared of the traffickers — they are also scared of law enforcement. It can take weeks to build enough trust with these victims that they will speak to us.”
(more at website link)

A suspected Palm Springs-based prostitution ring that offered services in several Western states since at least 2001 was broken up last week after a 2½-year investigation, Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle announced Monday.
Authorities allege that Elite Entertainment, an adult escort business, was merely a front for prostitution.
The Israeli immigrants who owned the business are accused of dispatching prostitutes to California, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon from their Palm Springs office, which had 80 phone lines linked to various 1-800 numbers advertising massages, bachelor parties, nude dancing and the like.
"You could be in Tahoe, call that number and get service," District Attorney-elect Rod Pacheco said.
There were upward of 240 women working as prostitutes for the company, Pacheco said, but he "wouldn't hazard a guess" at how many customers there were.
Pacheco said there have been similar escort services operating in Riverside County but not on this scale. "Those escorts, by comparison, were Pop Warner teams," Pacheco said at a news conference Monday, adding that Elite Entertainment was more like the Pittsburgh Steelers of escort services. Doyle said the fees could range from $200 to $2,000, "depending on what you're getting done."
Details of the operation were spelled out in court documents. According to the documents, the business used several names, including Hot Times Inc., Premier Connections and Growth Development. Among the files seized from the Palm Springs office were business licenses for Play Time Massage, Girls R Us and Hot Babes.
Investigators conducted several stings from May 2005 through April 2006 in which undercover officers negotiated to pay hundreds of dollars for sex acts with prostitutes sent by Elite Entertainment. They met the women at hotel rooms in cities including Los Angeles, Long Beach and Temecula, the documents state.
The sex acts were paid for over the phone by credit card and the payments were deposited into bank accounts held by the suspects, the documents say. After the deals were made, the investigators would create a ruse for leaving the hotel rooms, the documents say.
(more at website link)

Members of the Washington County Sheriff's Office Special Operations Unit (SOU) arrested Irene Nair, 34, of Aloha for prostitution. The arrest is a result of an ongoing investigation into Internet arranged prostitution occurring in Washington County.
Today at 12:29 PM, the Special Operations Unit arrested Ms. Nair at the Beaverton Budget Inn, located at 13295 SW Canyon Road in Beaverton. An investigation into prostitution in Washington County revealed that Ms. Nair was using the web page "Craig's List" to advertise her services.
Ms. Nair has been doing business on "Craig's List" for quite some time, previously she was having "customers" come to her residence at 17881 SW Robert Lane in Aloha. Neighbors in the area were concerned with the increased traffic at the house. An operation was created to apprehend Ms. Nair, details of the operation are not available at this time. Ms. Nair has a criminal history in Washington County going back to 1999; during that time she has been booked into the jail 13 times for various crimes.
The SOU was recently created to combat problems occurring in Washington County neighborhoods. It is a directed law enforcement team that targets community livability issues throughout Washington County. The team comprised of Sheriff's Office detectives and deputies who have been specially selected to target emerging issues in neighborhoods. The team will be deployed to address nuisance properties, suspected drug houses, fugitive apprehension, and other suspected criminal activity that can be eradicated with quick and intense law enforcement action in a defined area.

SOU Web Site: www.co.washington.or.us/sheriff/investig/sou.htm
(more at website link)

The lawyer for two sexually oriented businesses says his clients were unfairly prosecuted to bolster the campaigns for two Salt Lake County district attorney candidates.
Attorney Andrew McCullough claims Lohra Miller and Sim Gill, city prosecutors for Cottonwood Heights and Salt Lake City, inappropriately directed their respective police forces to bust two sexually oriented businesses for no reason other than to grab headlines in a heated district attorney race. The first bust happened in February at a Salt Lake lingerie shop, while the other occurred a few days ago at a Cottonwood Heights escort service.
"The two city prosecutors that are running this thing seem to be looking for big time news items to look like they're tough," McCullough said. "Is it a coincidence? It might be." McCullough doesn't hide his inherent conflict in this whole mess: His former partner Rob Latham is running as a Libertarian candidate for the county attorney position, and McCullough is on his campaign staff.Both attorneys vehemently deny everything.
"My prosecution of this case has absolutely nothing to do with my candidacy," Miller said Friday. "It has to do with Cottonwood Heights hiring me to aggressively prosecute sexually oriented businesses that violate the law, and that's exactly what I'm doing."
Gill says he was just doing his job, as he has fought sexually-oriented crimes for the past 10 years . "I started doing this in 1996. It's part of a systematic approach to our issues in the community," Gill said. "I'm not trying to grab headlines."
In February Salt Lake City police seized 700 suspected pornographic DVDs from Dr. John's Lingerie, 677 S. 200 West, with a warrant claiming the films violated state obscenity laws. The raid reeked of politics to McCullough, considering Salt Lake City's chief prosecutor, Gill, is running for Salt Lake County district attorney — especially considering most of the videos have since been returned, McCullough said. Gill said the investigation is ongoing and charges are pending. The raid that put Miller in the spotlight happened Wednesday as Cottonwood Heights police raided a local escort service with a warrant claiming the owner did not have a proper county sexually oriented business license, a class B misdemeanor. Miller, a contracted prosecutor for the city, was at the apartment during the raid, when Tiffany Cortis, 31, owner of the Utah Doll House, was arrested. A handful of local media also was there to record the arrest. "This is an awful fuss for a class B misdemeanor," McCullough said.
The Utah Doll House reportedly has a license in Park City, but state law requires escort businesses to be licensed in each county in which they operate. McCullough said it's just a misunderstanding that will be cleared up in court. Police found camera equipment, computers, cash, receipts and a handgun inside the apartment and seized the Utah Doll House's client list. McCullough said he filed an action in court against Cottonwood Heights Thursday to make sure the client list does not get out. "If they are doing anything whatsoever to try and expose our customer list, we want it blocked and we want it blocked immediately," McCullough said.
Miller said the client list will not be released to anyone, as the list is evidence she plans on using in a criminal case against the owner of the Utah Doll House. Several cities have Miller on contract to prosecute crimes. Her law firm, Miller and Miller, contracts with Holladay, Taylorsville, West Jordan and Cottonwood Heights.
In related news, a blog posting on the Utah Doll House's Web site urges readers to call Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and "let him know you don't think busting escorts in hotel rooms serves the people of this great community to the best of his and the police department's ability."
As of late Friday afternoon, not one person had called the mayor's office, said Patrick Thronson, the mayor's spokesman.
"The mayor believes that existing laws against escort services should be vigorously enforced, particularly since many women involved in escort services are exploited," Thronson said. (more at website link)

Five police agencies from three counties participated in an escort service sting a week ago. A total of 20 arrests were made for such violations as sex solicitation and not having a sexually oriented business license, with more arrests pending, said Salt Lake City police detective Dwayne Baird.
Officers from Salt Lake City, Layton, Park City, Midvale and the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office participated in the operation, which Baird described as a kind of training session.
"We were teaching other agencies how to operate vice-type undercover work," he said. "Our responsibility was to teach other agencies and put (the sting) together."
The problem of escort services doubling as prostitution businesses has spread past the main Salt Lake Valley, and some agencies don't have as much practice running vice operations, Baird said. "We want to work together to resolve these problems. That's why we did it as a large operation with several agencies," he said.
The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, which has conducted escort stings in the past, described the event as more of a "compliance check."
"We wanted to make sure they were following the ordinances, had licenses, etc.," said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Capt. Scott Mickelsen.
Three precincts from the sheriff's office participated in the event, including the Holladay, Millcreek and Cottonwood Heights precincts.
The sheriff's office made four arrests, three for not having a license and one for prostitution. The majority of arrests were class B misdemeanors.
"There is a problem that occurs. It's not a huge problem but one that has to be monitored on a regular basis," Mickelsen said. "It occurs everywhere, not in just one or two areas of town." (more at website link)

Four women were arrested Wednesday afternoon after members of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office’s Narcotics Unit conducted an undercover prostitution operation at B-C Massage, 8192 College Parkway, Suite 32-B.
Venecia Depaula, 27, of 4629 SW 8th Place, Cape Coral; Lori Midgett, 29, of 3165 Royalston Arc; Debra Handley, 53, of 1134 Grand Ave., Fort Myers and Lela Odom, 32, of 279 Granada Ave., Fort Myers were arrested and charged with one count of prostitution, a second-degree misdemeanor. Depaula was released from the jail around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, but the other women remain in jail.
Detectives conducted the operation after receiving several complaints about possible prostitution at the business as well as near Old U.S. 41 in North Fort Myers, said deputy Angelo Vaughn.
In April, Adam Scott Cooper, 36, of Alva, was arrested for receiving proceeds of prostitution, a third-degree felony, after he allegedly employed women at Magnetic Plus Natural Healing who offered sex to customers.

93 people were arrested in Krasnoyarsk for prostitution and its organization for 4 months of 2006, Yevgeniy Yakovlev, the head of the vice squad of Krasnoyarsk Directorate for Internal Affairs, announced at the briefing on May, 17.

According to Yakovlev, '22 operative actions had to be held to arrest so many prostitutes and souteneurs'. 70 of 93 arrested people were incited to administrative proceedings. 8 files to be formed as criminal cases were also collected.

The head of the department also noted that the punishment provided for these offenses was very soft and not efficient. 'The prostitutes arrested and people, who organize prostitution – souteneurs – are often punished with a fine of $35-$50. In rare cases they can be sentenced to imprisonment. For this reason all these people start doing this business again after arrest. The fines they pay are much lower than the sums they earn,' he explained.

Yakovlev added that the department planned to pay special attention to road prostitution, since this type of business is very active in summer.

Moreover, the department also plans to struggle against male prostitution.

A woman was arrested, and items ranging from lubricants and condoms to cash and keys were seized from her Allston apartment, after police conducted a search warrant on April 28.

Michelle, aka Alisha Dixon of 107 Gordon St., Apt. 15, was arrested at home on charges of prostitution, according to a police...
(more at website link)

German police in four states arrested nearly 100 people in brothel raids during a crackdown on illegal prostitution ahead of next month's World Cup.

Police in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria questioned hundreds of sex workers in the statewide raids, authorities said Thursday.
(more at website link)

Fort Myers police arrested two people on prostitution charges Wednesday after the woman offered an undercover detective sex for $200 inside a motel on U.S. 41.

The Fort Myers Police Department's special investigations group was looking into a possible prostitution at the Howard Johnson motel, 4811 S. Cleveland Ave.

Detectives called the phone number in the classified section of The News-Press under personal services that read "Beautiful Southern Hotties — Kelly." No one answered, so they left a message.The woman who called back a minute later and claimed to be Kelly was really Cape Coral resident Maria Farmer, 20, police spokeswoman Maureen Buice said. She told him to come to a room at the Howard Johnson.Once she offered the detective sex for money, Farmer, of 4819 Atlantic Court, No. 3, was arrested and charged with solicitation for prostitution.

Police also arrested Derick Taylor, 20, on charges of deriving proceeds from prostitution and renting space for prostitution, Buice said. He had been living at the motel, Buice said."This is how they were making their money to live," Buice said. "They used it to buy food and pay bills."Neida Enchautegui, a clerk at Howard Johnson, said Thursday the two suspects had two rooms rented and had been staying there for a week.Taylor and Farmer have since been forbidden from returning to the motel. If they do, Enchautegui said officers have instructed employees to call the police. The classified ad still was in today's edition of The News-Press.

Web sites that give detailed information about where to find illicit sex for sale in South Carolina played a role in raids of suspected houses of prostitution in Lexington County earlier this year, law enforcement officials said.
Do a Google search for Brook’s Haven, which Lexington County officials allege was a house of prostitution but billed itself as an “aromatherapy” and “soft massage” center. One of the items that comes up is a listing about the now-defunct business on a “sex guide” Web site.
The site chronicled the evolution of Brook’s Haven and also described its demise within hours of the Jan. 13 raid. The site also kept visitors aware of the subsequent raids at Atlantis II and LMR (Le Masser Rendezvous) on prostitution charges on Feb. 15.
“We were alerted to the information on these sites by various people,” Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said. “A lot of the information we were able to get by monitoring the sites tended to be a benefit to the investigation.”
The sex-guide site, one of the most comprehensive of many similar ones on the Web, features dozens of forums frequented by people — all posting under nicknames or screen names — who discuss where to find prostitutes, houses of prostitution and other businesses that offer sex acts for a price.
(more at website link)

The leaking and subsequent media exposure of the names of 22 Turkish female singers and models detained by the Vice Squad of the Istanbul police as part of what has been portrayed as a large-scale crackdown on alleged prostitution - while the identities of their alleged cliental of football players or solicitors have been kept secret- has been criticised for violating confidentiality of private life and dubbed a reflection of "hypocritical male solidarity".
The very name of the roundup, "Operation Barbie" that hit the headlines of the Turkish media together with the identity of the women placed under custody, in most cases accompanied by their images, has led to criticism both of the operation itself and its intentions.
Turkey's Human Rights Association (IHD) has criticised the "Barbie Operation" for violating the very right of confidentiality of private life while attorney Hulya Gulbahar from the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) Women's Platform has said it is "a typical example of hypocritical male solidarity", maintaining that the police involved had acted against the law.
(more at website link)

A federal jury has convicted three Charlotte men of operating a drug and prostitution ring in which 10 girls, some as young as 14, had sex with as many as 10 men a night.
Tracy McDaniel Howard, 21, David Leonarde Howard, 25, and Nicholas Jermaine Ragin, 25, each face mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years in prison and could be sent away for life.
They were convicted after a three-week trial that ended Friday. During testimony, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Marston said, six girls told jurors that customers at apartment complexes paid $25 for 15 minutes of sex with them. The girls also were driven to houses and hotels in high-dollar neighborhoods of Charlotte where they had sex with men who paid $200 each.
The three men were found guilty of conspiracy to commit coercion and enticement of women, including juveniles, to engage in prostitution, as well as conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute over 50 grams of crack cocaine. (more at website link)

David Bachmann was not a businessman who adhered to the old adage that the customer is always right.
His prostitution business was lucrative enough that he didn't need to deal with customers who gave him headaches. So — like a casino boss with his black book of banned gamblers — Bachmann created a "bad customer list" of people barred from doing business with him.
Their transgressions ranged from having no money, paying with a bum credit card, being violent — a Boca Raton couple fell into this category — even merely seeing "girls outside the agency," as he noted about a Miami man on the list.
Among the others who displeased Bachmann: a Boca Raton man about whom he noted: "Freak — violent — choking."
A Miami man made the list because he was too picky: "sent 4 nice ones, said they were ugly," Bachmann wrote. Another man "turned down at least 5 of our girls."
One customer shot at a driver. Another smashed his car window. They're on the list. So are a couple of guys who tried to trade drugs for sex.
The prostitutes sometimes had scary scrapes, too. A Broward County man was added to the bad customer list after he threatened the woman with a gun and knives. Other men on the list wouldn't let the women leave once they were finished. One "likes to threaten girls," Bachmann noted.
Bachmann's business went bust when the Boca Raton entrepreneur and his ex-wife, Michelle Bachmann, were arrested in January following a three-year police probe. The couple netted nearly $3 million from December 1998 to December 2004 through their escort services, authorities said.
David Bachmann pleaded guilty to three felonies and one misdemeanor last month and is supposed to report to jail May 2 to begin a one-year sentence. That will be followed by 10 years of probation. He also had to forfeit $225,000 and computer equipment taken from his Broken Sound home. Charges against his wife were dropped. (more at website link)

Paying for sex is illegal and Lubbock Police are now using the internet to catch people allegedly participating in prostitution. So far police have had 162 hits online and made seven arrests, one is even a high profile attorney here in Lubbock. NewsChannel 11's Jennifer Vogel spoke with police about the high-tech sting.
Lubbock police actually put up ads on numerous websites that offer sex through prostitution. They wait for responses, chat with the suspects and then set up face-to-face meeting where they make the arrests. "We don't go out and find people we simply sit and wait and they come to us," says Lt. Greg Stevens of the Lubbock Police Department.
For the first time ever Lubbock police are using a new tactic to try and stop prostitution. This time it's the police that are the online predators, preying on potential criminals. "It's just like patrolling neighborhoods, we have to patrol the internet as well," says Lt. Stevens.
Police put up advertisements offering sex for money. Once they have a buyer, they set up a meeting. So far, there have been seven arrests, one being 51-year-old Charles Dunn, a high profile attorney here in Lubbock. "Are they 110% sure when they read whatever it is on the internet that they are soliciting prostitution?' Absolutely. Absolutely. 'How?' Very specific, you are paying money for sexual activity. 'But how do they know they have the right person when they make the arrest?' There's no doubt in our minds when they show up, that's who came to meet us because of conversations, time/place/date something dressed, what they're driving, all the way down to the eye color," answered Lt. Stevens.
As this investigation continues police say the success of this sting has moved them into a new electronic age of fighting crime. "Of the seven we arrested that's a bare fraction of what's probably out there and were just stepping into doorway and its a pretty big room we're stepping into."
Lubbock police say this investigation is on-going. They are still getting hits off their prostitution ad but they're hoping this sting will lead to catching bigger criminals, like child predators or drug traffickers.

The operators of Pancho’s Inc. agreed in a Stipulation for Judgment to “immediately and permanently discontinue use of the subject premises for any purpose.” The owner of the business was given until 5 p.m. on April 28, 2006, to vacate the premises at 418 Main St., Bridgeport, under the stipulation approved by the Honorable Judge Arthur Hiller.
The Nuisance Abatement Unit in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney had initiated an action against Pancho’s on April 4, 2006, as a result of a history of prostitution and sale of narcotics at the bar, which offered adult entertainment.
Between August 2005 and January 2006 Bridgeport police made 19 arrests at Pancho’s on charges including prostitution, patronizing a prostitute, permitting prostitution and sale of narcotics.

Kristina Grekulak, 24, of Buffalo was charged with prostitution after an incident at a Niagara Falls Boulevard hotel early Tuesday morning.  Jason Davis, 25, of Egg Harbor, N.J., was also charged with patronizing a prostitute.  Both people are facing B misdemeanors.

Two employees of a Collin County massage parlor were arrested Friday on charges of prostitution.
An undercover officer in McKinney entered the Tokyo Rose Massage and Spa, where the officer said the employees -- Maggie Ye and Hong Zhao -- offer him sexual services.
McKinney police raided the business, located on El Dorado Parkway, and charged the two employees. Officers continue to search for the man they said owns the massage parlor.

In a dark Arrow Steet room adorned with an antique lamp and fraying tassels, certain dreams came true, according to police reports. Female masseuses massaged male customers’ genitals and offered—for a little bit of cash—extras like the “Russian Ending” and “Pop the Cork” at About Hair, according to the Cambridge Police Department (CPD). Police arrested the shop’s owner, Duncan W. Purdy, on Oct. 7, and seized $1,608, a digital camera Purdy has used to shoot nude photos, and a computer. (more at website link)

Two people, including an undercover Boston police officer, were injured during prostitution stings Friday and yesterday around Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury. The stings yielded seven arrests and an additional unrelated arrest for drugs, according to police. The officer was injured early yesterday morning. At approximately 6:15 a.m. on Blue Hill Avenue near Huckins Street, the officer approached Clark's Nissan Sentra. Police said Clark and an unidentified black male in the passenger seat offered the officer money in exchange for sex.
When the officer signaled that the men had made an offer, police approached the vehicle. Police said Clark put the vehicle in reverse and the passenger opened his door. The open door struck the undercover officer, knocking her to the ground, then hit the passenger and dragged him about 20 feet before knocking him into a light pole, police said.
According to police, Clark then turned onto Nonquit Street, a dead end, where he got out of the car and fled on foot before being apprehended by officers. (more at website link)

More than 150 policemen from Fuzhou City, Fujian in early morning of Mar. 26 raided 12 locations in Fuzhou, Xiamen and Zhangzhou and arrested totally 27 women, and 9 men, who have been offering nude women show over the Internet, mainly serving Taiwanese clients. These women, many of whom have never had sex, are paid at a base rate of 800 renminbi, or $100, a month for 6,000 minutes of work. If they overwork, they get paid extra 1.2 renminbi a minute. Their clients, who have to register through certain web sites, need to pay 1 renminbi a minute to "nude chat" with these young women. The police learned that the organizer of this "prostitution" chain is a Taiwanese.

Police said Tuesday they had arrested 100 people in a crackdown on a prostitution ring which brought Russian women to Spain . A police statement said more than 70 Russian women were detained in the raids, which were carried out in five Spanish provinces.
Police said the gang, run by a Russian identified only by his first name, Andrei, obtained Schengen visas issued by the French embassy in Moscow for the women and purchased air and bus tickets to get them to Spain, where they worked in brothels run by Spaniards.
The women ran up major debts with the gang, making it almost impossible for them to break away. Authorities' attention was first drawn to the gang at the end of 2004 when eight Russian women were quizzed in Duesseldorf airport, Germany . They told police they were headed for Spain where they would be forced to work as prostitutes for a Moscow-based gang which had provided them with tickets and visas, reports the AP.

An undercover sting Wednesday revealed that Magnetic Plus Natural Healing at 1621 N. Tamiami Trail, North Fort Myers, was selling more than massages.
An undercover officer from the Lee County Sheriff's Office posed as a client, and a female employee offered him "full service," Ferrante said.
The woman, whose name was not released, then told him to take off his clothes and gave him a condom. While two women were at the business at the time of the arrest, they are not being charged because they are a part of an ongoing investigation, Ferrante said.
(more at website link)

After two minutes of haggling over the price of oral sex, Ms. Knerr closed the deal. Then she gave a prearranged signal. Seven pairs of eyes watching from three unmarked vehicles spotted it and moved in. Undercover police officers arrested the man for patronizing a prostitute. One of Ms. Knerr's partners swooped in and spirited her away. The man's red-light hooker, it turned out, was really a lady in blue.
(more at website)

Art Casillas trolls East Van Buren Street for hookers four nights a week. Dressed in an untucked tee shirt and jeans, Casillas looks like he might be a Little League coach. Maybe that's why there's something initially unnerving about the ease with which he can rattle off a menu of sex acts.
(more at website)

Hundreds of young women are being traded as sex slaves at London airports in a billion-pound trafficking and prostitution racket. Gangmasters are exploiting budget airline flights to discreetly traffick women to Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports from eastern Europe. At least one such victim arrives every day while others are brought in overland on bus routes arriving at Victoria station.
(more at website)

Federal authorities are focusing on teenage prostitution being exported from northwest Ohio but are at a loss to explain why the problem was found there, the (Toledo) Blade reported Sunday. Federal investigators in Washington last month charged 31 people with taking teenagers, including at least nine from the Toledo area, across state lines for prostitution.
(more)

They can be as young as 11 years old, little girls prowling the streets of Las Vegas, selling their bodies to make money. The problem is steadily getting worse in our city -- a city that has one of the most progressive stop child prostitution programs in the country. In my special Crime Tracker 3 report, we look closely at the problem plaguing our streets, the game after dark.

On Thursday, March 16, 2006 at approximately 8:18 PM, members of the Narcotics Unit of the Lee County Sheriff's Office conducted an undercover operation at in the area of Old U.S. 41 and Childers Street, Bonita Springs, Lee County, Florida. (list is on site)

Today the Fort Myers Police Department's Special Investigations Group conducted an operation to address prostitution related crimes. The operation specifically targeted the "john" or male customer and took place on Cleveland and Linhart Avenues and at Cleveland and Maravilla Avenues. Female officers posing as prostitutes were solicited by 10 men who were arrested for solicitation for the purpose of prostitution. One man was charged with possession of cocaine. The following people were arrested: (list is on site)

Two people are arrested and a third person faces charges as a result of a drug and prostitution investigation. Johnson City police tell your Tri-Cities news source that 21-year-old Nena Collins offered an undercover police officer sex in exchange for crack cocaine. Collins' arrest lead to police to 37-year-old Tracy Jones. He faces charges for possession of narcotics. Charges have also been placed against a female who fled the area on foot.

Johnson City Police have continued their crack down on prostitution. An investigation into the world's oldest profession has led to the arrest of two city women. 30 year old Jennifer Cantrell and 30 year old Kristina Guinn were both arrested and charged with prostitution. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 1:30 in Sessions Court.

Fishers police have charged a woman with prostitution following an undercover sting Thursday.

Submitted via email - "the cops own the ramada inn on semoran in orlando"

In a lunchtime undercover operation, Florida cops yesterday busted 15 strippers on a variety of criminal charges, including prostitution and exposure of a sexual organ. The arrests came at five different gentlemen's clubs (Bare Assets, Lollipops, Extasy, Brass Flamingo, and Calendar Girls) along U.S. Highway 19 in the Tampa area. According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, previous operations were carried out at night, but since the strip clubs were packed during lunch (and the talent was rather, um, frisky), the midday raid was planned. Fourteen of the arrestees posed for mug shots, which you'll find below (make sure to click on each image to see the following booking photo). We've also provided a link to a police report above a handful of photos. It is unclear if any of the charged offenses occurred in a Champagne Room.

An Oklahoma man who has gained national exposure for his "video vigilante" campaign to expose street prostitution in his hometown was arrested yesterday for allegedly paying hookers to ensure that they serviced customers in an area where he could easily film the illicit trysts. According to the below Oklahoma City Police Department report, Brian Bates, 34, orchestrated the public encounters so he could peddle the resulting videotape to media outlets (some of Bates's surveillance tapes are offered for sale on his web site). In his dealings with prostitutes, Bates was choosy, investigators contend.

Lynnwood Police Department investigators became suspicious that female employees were providing a variety of illegal services. So, two undercover officers visited the establishment for a look-see. But instead of just observing, the cops actually were, um, serviced by massage parlor employees on a total of three separate occasions.

Returning to the scene of the grind, Florida cops last week conducted undercover operations leading to the arrest of 25 more dancers at Tampa-area gentlemen's clubs. Seems that some of the female talent was rubbing their clientele the wrong way.

A Manhattan-based escort service that dispatched prostitutes - some earning $1,500 an hour - to cities around the world has turned its last trick, the authorities said yesterday. Elena Trochtchenkova and Rady Abdel Salem Abbassy, who owned the New York Elites escort service, and eight office workers have pleaded guilty to money laundering and other charges. An indictment accused the service of making $13.5 million in the last four years by attracting a wealthy clientele that included lawyers and Wall Street brokers. Investigators are examining business records to determine if any clients or prostitutes will be charged, said Martin D. Ficke, a special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New York. (AP)

Streetwalkers in suburbia? Not if the Lakeville police can help it. For the first time in at least 10 years, police are aggressively fighting prostitution in Lakeville. The department organized three prostitution stings within a month to get the word out, said Police Chief Steve Strachan. During the stings, police arrested four women for prostitution, one john for accepting prostitution and two men for aiding and abetting the crime. ===More at website===

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS -- An Altamonte Springs massage parlor was raided Thursday evening and a California woman was arrested and accused of prostitution and performing massages without a license. Altamonte Springs police began investigating Long Quan Asian Massage, 1003 E. State Road 436, after receiving a tip last week about prostitution activities there.
Shumei Qi, 45, of Freemont, Calif., was arrested after she massaged the groin area of an undercover officer who paid $60 for a massage, arrest records show. Police seized $2,140 from the business, including $260 in marked bills spent at the business during the investigation.

Seems like a bit of the old Times Square was allegedly going on in Annandale. Fairfax County police say they shut down a house of prostitution at 7611 Heritage Drive. Two women are being charged with prostitution, while a man faces charges of running the place. Authorities also nabbed three other men found inside, who they accuse of being customers. Two more men were busted on the same charges when police say they showed up while officers were still inside. Investigators say neighbors became suspicious of the activities inside the home, so an undercover detective - posing as a customer - went inside Friday.

Complaints about prostitution activity in and around Atlantic City casinos led to a two-week, multiagency undercover operation that netted 136 arrests - 133 for prostitution and three for promoting prostitution, authorities said Thursday. State Police and Atlantic City authorities said the operation - dubbed Operation Spring Cleaning - ran consecutive nights from July 15 through 29. Teams comprised of male and female undercover detectives from 11 police departments in Atlantic and Cape May counties, including State and Atlantic City police, were used to contact suspects and make the arrests. --- see link for more ---

A two week sweep of Atlantic City casinos last month resulted in 136 prostitution arrests , state police said yesterday. Cops said they also learned that the Bloods street gang was running prostitution there.

About 20 law-enforcement agencies took part in a prostitution sting last week in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Authorities placed ads in a newspaper and on the Internet for escort services. The phone numbers listed actually rang to a police unit running the sting. Once a meeting was arranged over the phone, an undercover officer posed as an escort, leading to the arrests.

Police in Helsinki have begun handing out fines to people they catch buying sex services in public places. Five Finnish men have recently been given fines of EUR 50 under the new law on public order which came into effect in October last year. The law makes it illegal to buy or sell sex on the street, in restaurants, or in other public places. ... and more ...

With the arrest of two persons, including a girl, the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police claimed to have busted a gang involved in prostitution. The accused persons arrested have been identified as Adil Khan (24) and Neeta (24).

Law-enforcement agents in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area arrested more than 40 people on allegations of smuggling South Korean women into the country to work as prostitutes at massage parlors and other businesses, authorities said Friday.

MARIAH CAREY's hooker sister ALISON claims police are trying to stop her from selling sex in her native Suffolk County, New York after setting her up on a houseboat and arresting her for prostitution. The 44-year-old, who has been diagnosed HIV-positive, was arrested last month (JUN05) after agreeing to meet a client on his boat at a Long Island marina. The prostitute was busted after she advertised her services on an Internet call girl site, using the name APRIL.

NORTH FALMOUTH - Police yesterday busted what they've deemed ''a prostitution ring that serviced four states'' from a tidy cottage surrounded by flowers in North Falmouth.