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PA. prostitution case tossed over gov’t-funded sex

An appeals court has ruled Pennsylvania State Police botched a prostitution investigation in which troopers gave an informant money to pay for sex four times at a massage parlor, along with a total of $180 for the man’s trouble.

The Superior Court opinion issued Thursday upheld a Lehigh County judge’s ruling that threw out prostitution charges on the grounds that the government had acted outrageously.

The appeals court ruling described how the man first approached state police to say he had been solicited for sex at the Shiatsu Spa. Troopers then supplied the unnamed man with government money and sent him back four times to engage in what the county judge called “a smorgasbord of sexual activity” during June and July 2006.

Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg said the man’s subsequent visits did not advance the police investigation. He was given $360 total to pay for the services, plus the extra $180 for his time.

“The outrageous nature is it went beyond what was necessary to prove the prostitution charge,” said the defendant’s Chon’s lawyer, Maureen Coggins.

A dozen men looked for some TLC one afternoon, and would up in jail for their trouble. Read the whole story at The Morning Call.com…

12 men arrested in ‘Operation Afternoon Delight’ in Allentown
By Manuel Gamiz Jr.

A dozen men looking for some afternoon delight in a section of Allentown that had been receiving complaints about prostitution were arrested when the women they propositioned turned out to be Allentown police officers.

The men, ranging in age from 40 to 76, were nabbed by police during a daytime prostitution sting Thursday dubbed ”Operation Afternoon Delight,” named after the 1970s song by the Starland Vocal Band.

Assistant Chief Ron Manescu said police conducted the operation because they had received several complaints by women who said they were harassed by men who propositioned them thinking that they were prostitutes. The women told police that they felt uncomfortable just walking to and from their vehicles while in the area, he said.

Manescu said the day time is preferred time for ”johns” to solicit because they feel it is easier to blend in and go unnoticed by police or witnesses.

Besides the two female police officers posing as the bait for the unsuspecting ”johns,” the operation included members of the vice and intelligence units; the patrol division; and members of the Lehigh County Drug Task Force, Manescu said. The operation lasted from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and covered the area between Ninth and 11th streets and Linden and Chew streets, he said.

Somebody call the folks over at the Guinness Book of World Records! Read the whole story at The Morning Call…

Allentown woman sentenced for 24th prostitution conviction
By Kevin Amerman

A 47-year-old Allentown woman was sentenced to up to four years in prison Thursday after being convicted of prostitution for the 24th time.

The woman told Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg that her addiction to heroin and other drugs led her to the lifestyle.

”I don’t know how you’ve avoided diseases,” Steinberg said. ”That’s none of my business, but eventually this is going to catch up with you.”

The woman was sentenced to 16 to 48 months in state prison on prostitution and drug possession charges.

”The defendant is going to commit this crime again. The commonwealth has no doubt about it,” Assistant District Attorney Anna-Kristie Morffi told the judge.

Morffi said the woman has 33 prior convictions altogether, including probation and parole violations and drug convictions.

Wearing gold glasses and a beige prison jumpsuit, the woman said she’d like to get out of Allentown to start a new life.

The car forfeiture laws inregards to prostitution related arrests are being challenged.  Read the whole story at The Morning Call…

Man sues Easton over car seizure law
City took his automobile after arrest. He says ordinance is unconstitutional.
By Riley Yates

A man whose car was seized under Easton’s new anti-prostitution law sued the city Tuesday seeking to get the ordinance tossed out as unconstitutional.

Craig S. Cardone, 44, of Riegelsville was arrested in a police sting Aug. 22 on a charge of patronizing prostitutes, a misdemeanor. His 2003 Kia was seized under a statute approved in July that allows the city to permanently take any car used in soliciting a prostitute.

The suit, filed in Northampton County Court, said the law tramples constitutional protections against unreasonable seizures and excessive fines. It charges the city has inconsistently applied the rules and also questions whether the state Legislature ever permitted them.

Gary Asteak, the attorney representing Cardone, has publicly said he hoped to find a test case to challenge the new law. He said he has two or three other clients whose cars were seized who plan to join the suit.

Asteak called the prostitution stings a ”gross misappropriation of resources.”

”There is violent crime in the city of Easton. There are guns and drugs in the city of Easton,” Asteak said. ”[Police] ought to be expending the resources to make the streets safe.”

Easton’s law was passed by City Council on July 9 with little discussion. Across the country, cities including Memphis and Chicago also seize the cars of johns, though courts have struck down other communities’ laws.

Easton solicitor William Murphy said Tuesday the city’s ordinance was modeled after ones from several Western states. He said he is confident it will be upheld.

”We think it is legal,” said Murphy, who did not know if any other Pennsylvania communities have similar statutes.