Read more at The New Haven Independent…

This Time, Craigslist Helped The Cops

A recurring nemesis — the online sex ad — has also proved one of the police’s best tools in cracking down on prostitutes.

So revealed Branford police after they closed down an alleged prostitution ring this week. Police said the alleged operation, at Marlow’s Health Studio, operated out of a second-story set of stores at a Branford strip mall.

Based on tips from citizens and a bold advertisement last month on an adult services page of the New Haven area’s “adult services” section of Craigslist, Branford police conducted a major investigation into Marlow’s. Fourteen police officers conducted two simultaneous raids, one in Branford, one in Ansonia, which led to six arrests, including of the alleged co-owner and the manager of the place.

Marlow’s operated in full view at a local mall off Exit 55 of I-95, the police charge. Police closed down the place, which they describe as a full-scale prostitution ring. Lt. Geoffrey Morgan said police carried out the Marlow’s sign that hung in the window, the massage tables and most importantly the client lists and other business records Wednesday night. It is now closed.

Over the last 30 years the place had been known as Marlow’s. Police said it is unclear when it actually became a house of prostitution operating openly above a nail and hair place and steps away from a dog grooming business and a Chinese restaurant. It has been known to be a massage studio and a health club. Police believe ownership changed hands some months ago.

Read more at The Hartford Courant…

Man fined for offering sex with wife

A man who Connecticut police say offered strangers paid sex with his wife in an Internet ad has been fined $2,000.

The Forty-nine-year-old man from the Bronx, N.Y., pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor prostitution conspiracy charge Tuesday in Norwalk Superior Court and paid the fine.

Norwalk police say they arrested the man and his 36-year-old wife  in June after officers responded to their Craigslist ad, which offered sex with the woman at a city hotel.

Read more at Bloomberg.com…

Craigslist Not Responsible for Sex-For-Hire Ads, Judge Rules
By Andrew M. Harris

Craigslist won dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, that accused the classified ads Web site of creating a public nuisance by providing a forum for prostitution services.

U.S. District Judge John F. Grady in Chicago threw out the lawsuit filed by Sheriff Tom Dart, finding that the site was only a conduit for others to publish the ads and wasn’t legally responsible for their content.

“Sheriff Dart may continue to use Craigslist’s website to identify and pursue individuals who post allegedly unlawful content,” Grady said in a 20-page decision posted on the court’s electronic docket yesterday. “But he cannot sue Craigslist for their conduct.”

An interesting article about the online pay-for-sex scene. Read more at redOrbit.com…

Internet Fuels Virtual Subculture For Sex Trade

The Internet has spawned a virtual subculture of “johns” who share information electronically about prostitution, potentially making them harder to catch, according to a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University criminologist.

The research by MSU’s Thomas Holt and Kristie Blevins of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte challenges the common perception that sex customers act alone and do not interact for fear of reprisal or scorn. The study appears in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.

Holt, assistant professor of criminal justice, said today’s Web-savvy johns use the Internet to solicit prostitutes and to provide each other with warnings of prostitution hot zones and stings, which can hamper the efforts of law enforcement officials.

But the more police become familiar the johns’ Web activities, the more it can help them zero in on the perpetrators, Holt added.

“The growth of these deviant subcultures has made it more difficult for law enforcement,” said Holt, who has helped police devise prostitution stings. “On the other hand, it gives us a new opportunity to use the way the offenders communicate to better target their activities.”

The study analyzed prostitution Web forums in 10 U.S. cities with the highest rates of prostitution arrests: Atlanta; Baltimore; Chicago; Dayton, Ohio; Elizabeth, N.J.; Forth Worth, Texas; Hartford, Conn.; Inglewood, Calif.; Las Vegas; and Memphis, Tenn.

In the Web forums, the johns provide detailed information on the location of sexual services on the streets and indoors, as well as ways to identify specific providers, information on costs and personal experiences with providers.

The open nature of the forums led the johns to carefully disguise their discussions with a unique language, or argot, based largely on code and acronyms. This argot may help johns and sex workers to avoid legal sanctions and any social stigma associated with participating in the sex trade, the researchers said.

Read more at WFSB.com…

12 Charged Following Prostitution Sting
Police: Women Operated Out Of ‘Saunas’

A dozen women were charged with prostitution over the weekend after New Haven police conducted a sting operation.

Police said the arrests came after the raided two saunas: The Orange Sauna and The Star Sauna, both on Whalley Avenue.

“I did have a feeling about a month ago that something else was going on besides the normal massage,” resident Ella Blackwell said.

Blackwell said she caught on after a group of men recently used the ATM machine in her Laundromat.

“There were four guys who came in, and they were hitting the ATM machine really hard and they were happy,” she said.

New Haven’s Tactical Narcotic Unit had been investigating the saunas for three months prior to making the arrests. In addition to the arrests, police said, $30,000 in cash was seized.

Read the entire, interesting article at The Fairfield Weekly…

Sex Doesn’t Always Sell
Sex workers are increasing advertising and considering returning to street-walking during the recession
By Erin Holroyd

Kim Capozziello, owner of Scruples Lounge in Bridgeport, has not seen much of a change in her bottom line, but her dancers have.

“People will continue to drink regardless of the economy,” says Capozziello. “When given the choice between a $20 lap dance or $20 on drinks, many of the patrons are opting to drink.”

Patty Willmott has been dancing at Scruples since leaving the insurance business nearly 15 years ago. Now in her 40s (although you’d never know it), Patty believes this is the worst economic hit of her career.

“A lot of our regulars don’t have the same disposable income they used to have,” she says. “I haven’t had anywhere near the amount of private dances I used to get.”

A Scruples patron we’ll call Rod says he has to spend his entertainment funds wisely. “I have been coming here for years and sometimes the customers have to be more cautious with their spending than at other times,” he says. “I haven’t changed my habits much, but lots of my friends who come here have curbed their spending significantly.”

Adult spas reported a huge decline in appointments. Marilyn, a spa manager, says her spa has decided to open by appointment only. “We couldn’t justify being open all the time,” she says. “Keeping the spas and saunas operating costs money.”

If exotic dance clubs were seeing their girls losing income, and spas were opting to close early, I wondered how my sisters of the evening were holding up. Some of the women I found thanks to this paper, some on Craigs-list (yes, they are still there) and a few through a friend. They all work in the Bridgeport area.

Statistics on increases in the number of women working as prostitutes, how many women are currently in that line of work and projections on prostitution are difficult to come by.

An article published in September, written by Columbia University sociologist, author and documentary filmmaker Sudhir Venkatesh, found that during difficult financial times there is an increase in the so-called indoor sex worker trade. “Sex workers of the past waited on street corners, outside bars and around parks, and their transactions were fleeting and usually for a few dollars,” Venkatesh says. He discovered that now many of these women, working exclusively indoors and managing their own careers, view themselves as therapists — part of the wellness industry, like yoga instructors and personal chefs. He found that many of the women felt the comfort and kindness they shared with their clients was just as valuable as the sex.

Craigslist has closed it’s ‘erotic services’ section, after a bit of scrutiny from law enforcement. But it looks like the racy ads have migrated to the new ‘adult’ section. Progress? See what ABC News says…

Craigslist Clean-Up: Is it Really Working?
Conn. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal: ‘We’re Not Going Away’

It’s been nearly a month since Craigslist promised improvements to clean the Web site of prostitution and graphic images, and while attorney general watchdogs report some progress it still takes just seconds to find illegal activities advertised on the site.

ABCNews.com looked at advertisements in eight cities and almost immediately found posts that were both lewd and illegal in markets that included Hartford, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Salt Lake City and Columbia, S.C.

The ads have ranged from a lusty “Hey fellaz” with hourly rates to raunchy photos, and even an offer to trade drugs for sex.

“It’s very much a continuing battle,” Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told ABCNews.com. “So far, Craigslist has failed to do enough and that’s why we’re asking the questions.”

Craigslist, which told ABCNews.com that it was being unfairly targeted, was hit with a fresh round of questions on May 26 from the attorneys general of seven states, requesting more information about the site’s screening process and criteria for banning certain posts among other details.

The Web site has yet to respond to the AGs’ letter sent to Craigslist attorney Edward Wes, but Blumenthal said further action would be determined, in part, by the answers to those questions.

Read the whole story at The Boston Herald…

States demand details from Craigslist on anti-prostitution screening

Attorneys general from seven states are asking online classified site Craigslist for details on how it will keep pornography and prostitution off its newly created adult services section.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and others are making the request two weeks after Craigslist agreed to eliminate its “erotic services” ads. The Web site came under intense scrutiny after a Boston man was charged with killing a masseuse he met from Craigslist online classifieds.

Craigslist has not prescreened ads in the past, but says postings in its new adult services section are reviewed before being posted.

Blumenthal says attorneys general from Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mississippi and New Hampshire signed the request asking Craigslist for more detail on the screening process.

A Craigslist attorney did not immediately return a call.

Read the whole story at The Hartford Sentinel…

Local call girl ring derailed
By Joe Johnson

Finding a prostitute is easy with the Internet. Of course, local police know that.

Two men looking for a good time got more than they bargained for on Wednesday night when a police sting operation cracked down on a local, Internet-run prostitution ring.

“You never know when the person you are calling may be a police officer,” Investigator Bryan Toppan said.

Hanford police were tipped off to the illicit escort service during the arrest of an alleged prostitute and her pimp one week ago. The pair were linked to the armed robbery of a downtown convenience store, but further investigation into their activities revealed a disturbing local trend, police said.

“Prostitutes or their pimps post up advertisements in these online classifieds,” Toppan said. “They are listed under the exotic services category with a picture, a phone number and directions on how to get in touch with them. Then people call them up and arrange to pay for sexual acts.”

Police Capt. Parker Sever said detectives were surprised to find several listings for Hanford on the Visalia and Tulare area Craigslist — a free online classifieds service.

One listing, for a suspect identified herself as “Desire” and “Pure Pleasure.” The advertisement describes her body and state that “no cheapskates” are allowed, but call “day or night” if “you have at least 100 dollars.”

“These were different people than the ones we picked up for robbery,” Toppan said. “So, we decided to piggyback a prostitution sting on the back of this other investigation.”

The result was five arrests made between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Undercover officers contacted two girls and arranged to meet them at an unspecified Hanford hotel. When they arrived, a squad of police officers was waiting to take them into custody.

“As we were making the arrests, the girls started getting cell phone calls from other people trying to solicit their services,” Toppan said. “So, we had an undercover female officer answer the phone and make arrangements to meet them at the same hotel.”

The new arrivals included two Kings County residents who were cited and released at the scene for soliciting prostitution.

Law enforcement also determined that the second girl arrested for prostitution was dropped off at the hotel by a man who was receiving profits from her services, who was arrested after the bust on suspicion of pimping and pandering.

The suits down at Craigslist can’t play stupid for much longer, as law enforcement continues to focus their attention on their ‘Erotic Services’ category. Read the whole story at The Charlotte Business Journal…

S.C. threatens Craigslist over ads

S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster has written to Craigslist Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster, threatening “criminal investigation and prosecution” over personal ads on the site that McMaster claims are used for prostitution.

In November, Craigslist agreed to crack down on postings that advertised prostitution or “erotic services” as part of a set of changes endorsed by attorneys general in about 40 states.

At that time, the San Francisco business also sued 14 software and service providers, saying in part that they claim to offer help in evading Craigslist’s rules about illegal activity.

But McMaster is the latest in a string of state attorneys general to complain that Craigslist hasn’t done enough to clean up the ads.

In his letter to Buckmaster, McMaster says Craigslist “has not installed sufficient safeguards since November to prohibit the Internet site from being used as a vehicle to advertise or solicit prostitution.”

Attorneys general in Illinois, Missouri and Connecticut have also expressed concern about the issue.

Buckmaster wrote Tuesday on his company’s blog that “we see no legal basis whatsoever for filing a lawsuit” against Craigslist. He said he hoped to work with S.C. officials to address their concerns without violating “anyone’s constitutional rights.”

Craigslist has felt unfairly singled out on this issue for some time. Its blog has many entries stating its position and referring to media articles that agree with it.

In November, Buckmaster told the San Francisco Business Times, a sister publication of the Charlotte Business Journal, “We’re not looking to crack down in any sense on legal activity. Legal activity includes advertisements for escort services, massage services — the kind of ads we’ve seen for years in newspapers and Yellow Pages.”