Read more at WBZ.com…

Guilty verdicts in MA prostitution ring trial

Federal prosecutors say two Massachusetts members of a violent prostitution ring have been found guilty of forcing teenage girls as young as 15 to work as prostitutes, taking them to several states.

The two men were convicted in U.S. District Court on Friday. Prosecutors had previously said the 26-year-olds were members of a Boston-based group that operated from 2001 to 2005 in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania.

Trafficking victims who were minors when the offenses occurred said in court that Tavares and Jones switched underage girls between themselves and viciously beat them.

Read the whole story at The Bangor Daily News…

Orland woman, 42, pleads guilty in prostitution case
By Judy Harrison

The owner and operator of Cinnamon’s Sweets, an escort service that advertised online, pleaded guilty Tuesday in 3rd District Court to four counts of promoting prostitution.

Judge Jessie Gunther ordered the woman to pay fines of $500 per count for a total of $2,000.

The woman was one of seven women charged in April with promotion of prostitution, a Class D misdemeanor.

The women were released on bail shortly after their arrests.

Each faced up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.

No other escorts or their clients have been charged, according to the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office.

The women were arrested as the result of a sting operation conducted on April 2 and 3 by the Brewer police. Detective Sgt. Jay Munson said at the time of the arrests that he and other officers had visited Craigslist and similar sites a few days earlier.

“We started making phone calls and making appointments,” Munson said. “We ordered up five girls,” but during the process “we were able to order a sixth girl. Three of them came from Cinnamon’s Sweets.”

The women showed up at a Brewer motel one or two at a time to meet with an undercover officer who purportedly had hired them as escorts or to perform exotic dances.

“Through our investigation, we were quoted prices anywhere between $200 and $1,000,” Munson said in April.