Read more at The Ledger-Enquirer…

4 women arrested during Columbus Craig’s List prostitution bust
One suspect is 15, leading to child molestation charges against 3 women
By ALAN RIQUELMY

The undercover Columbus police officer was looking for an “adult service.”

That led him Saturday to women who police say used the Web site Craig’s List to prostitute themselves and a 15-year-old runaway.

One of the women answered the phone when the undercover officer called, and she told him to go to room No. 222 at a Days Inn, reports state.  He arrived around 2:20 p.m., and she then offered 20-year-old woman, police said.

The three agreed on $200 for sex, and that’s when the officer took the two women and a third woman, as well as a a suspect later identified as a 15-year-old into custody, reports show.

Police said suspected Ecstasy pills were on top of a night stand between two beds and that $16 worth of what appeared to be marijuana was found inside the night stand’s top drawer.

Officers booked the four suspects into the Muscogee County Jail. Around 9 p.m., jail personnel contacted police about one of the suspects giving a false name. A woman first believed to be 21 was actually a 15-year-old runaway who had been with the suspects since December, police said.

Explicit pictures of the teen appeared on an escort Web site, reports say.

Police then charged the three adult suspects with additional counts.

Read more at NKY.com…

Florence madam sentenced to 15 months
By Jim Hannah

A New York City resident learned Wednesday her punishment for operating a brothel that federal authorities had been trying to shutter for nearly a year.

The madam, who is in her early 50s, received a one year and three month sentence after previously pleading guilty to one count of coercing a person to travel in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in prostitution, a violation of the Mann Act.

As part of a plea agreement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Dusing agreed to drop two additional counts of the same crime. The Mann Act, passed by Congress in 1910 to address prostitution and human trafficking, makes it a crime to transport someone across state lines for immoral purposes.

…

Customers would pay an upfront flat fee of $60 for a half-hour massage and $80 for a one-hour massage, according to the complaint. When they were brought into a back room, they would negotiate a second fee with the “masseuse” for sex, the complaint stated.

Workers would get $30 for every hour they had a customer, the complaint stated.

Read more at Local12.com…

Newport Strip Clubs Raided

Police and prosecutors will meet today to go over evidence collected during raids at two Newport strip clubs Tuesday night. Twelve people were arrested and more suspects are expected to be brought up on charges.

The Brass Mule and The Brass Bull sit across from one another on Monmouth Street near Sixth Street. Newport Police, wearing masks and bullet proof vests, raided both businesses late Tuesday night. Dancers, bartenders, and patrons were ordered to lay on the ground as police conducted the raid.

A dozen people were arrested on charges ranging from prostitution, to nude dancing, to drugs and identity theft. Police say the investigation centers around prostitution and the possible sale of marijuana and cocaine at the clubs.

…

James Daley is the Campbell County Attorney. He says he expects to make more arrests after going through the clubs records. “I guess this goes back to the old days. When I was a trooper, we raided a lot of these places. These two were in existence at this time and if memory serves me correctly, we raided these two before. We’re looking to take these people as far as we can as far as prosecution and forfeitures to affect Newport’s environment.”

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 NBC Columbus…

How Easy Is It To Order A Prostitute In Columbus?
by Donna Willis

Want to move and warehouse goods and products? Columbus is an ideal distribution center. For the same reasons, the capital city also is ideal for the illegal sex trade.

Three Chillicothe men were arrested earlier this week for allegedly running a sex-trafficking ring.

The men allegedly arranged for the travel of females, including a 16-year-old girl, from Ohio to Maryland to engage in prostitution.

(614) Magazine Editor David S. Lewis said the same things that make Columbus a great distribution place also makes it an easy access point for people who are trafficking sex.

“It’s very explicitly illegal sex services. That’s what that is,” Lewis said.

How easy is it to order a hooker to go?

Lewis answered one of those newspapers ads and used a hidden camera to show us.

A woman agreed to show up for $150. Her 6-foot-5-inch companion was unexpected.

I paid the pimp. Uh, I paid her driver the money that we had agreed to on the phone. After that she wanted to be tipped in the room. She said that was very common so it was kind of a scam as well as prostitution, Lewis said.

She demanded an additional $200, Lewis said, but he didn’t intend to carry out the illegal act.

“At one point, it became really apparent that I was neither a potential john nor a cop, so it made it really awkward for everybody, I think,” Lewis said.

The woman left with her companion. When the car came squealing back, Lewis escaped out the window—with a story about the ads.

“It is prostitution. It absolutely is prostitution. It’s defended many times on First Amendment grounds, but the First Amendment intention, as far as the press goes, doesn’t necessarily extend to advertising illegal services, I don’t think,” Lewis said.

Read more about this tale at The Morning Journal…

Burglars strike home while owner out with prostitute
By Scot Allyn

A 78-year-old man’s home was burglarized Friday night while he cavorted with a prostitute, according to an Elyria Police report.

Police were sent to the home at 7:11 p.m. Friday in regard to a burglary in progress. At the home, police saw a man standing behind the back door, according to the report. Another man was standing on the back porch and a third man was found in a parked car nearby, waiting to drive the alleged thieves away, the report said.

After a foot chase, the men were arrested. Several items looted from the home, including jewelry, watches, coins and 10 guns, were recovered and returned to the victim.

The 78-year-old man returned home while officers were arresting the thieves, and explained a prostitute known as Kelly had performed a sexual act on him at his home earlier, the report said. Afterward she asked him to drive her to Lorain County Community College because her mother worked there, according to the report.

When the men were arrested, one of them volunteered he “had broken into the house because the girl, Kelly, had known the old man and arranged the whole thing,” the report said.

Read more at The Dayton Daily News…

Are the suburbs seeing more prostitution?
By Kristin McAllister

The world’s oldest profession is starting to find a new home in suburbia, thanks to popular classified advertising Web sites, most notably, Craigslist, law officials say.

“The Internet and sites like Craigslist certainly are changing things,” said Capt. Chris Anderson of the Troy Police Department, where in early August, police arrested a couple for running a home-based prostitution business advertised on Craigslist.

“The cases we see usually, almost exclusively, are to support a drug habit,” he said.

Anderson said the increase in Internet use for prostitution has prompted the department to change operations to now include continuous monitoring of online activity in Troy.

Other communities are seeing cases of prostitution from women posting to Craigslist, backpage and social networking sites, including Kettering, where Montgomery County Organized Crime Unit officers in March arrested two women who posted on Craigslist erotic services, and in Miamisburg, where Dayton police detectives in May arrested a woman at the Red Roof Inn after contacting and meeting her following her posting to the site.

Both communities, however, are not reporting a rise in the number of prostitution arrests.

Read more at WXIX.com…

Six arrested in Internet prostitution sting
by Trina Edwards

Six people have been arrested after an undercover Internet prostitution sting in Hamilton.

The Hamilton Police Department’s Vice Section conducted the sting on the city’s east side. Undercover officers were aided by the Fairfield Police Department and worked several locations and made arrests at the trouble spots.

“Our officers and detectives listen to citizen complaints,” said Vice Section Sergeant Wade McQueen. “Our officers know where these people operate and our commitment to safer streets will continue unabated.”

Remember the good old days when you could at least count on the hotel or motel staff to turn a blind eye?  That’s vanishing, too.

Read the whole story at The Canton Reporter…

Area motels and hotels watch for and report suspicious activity to police
By Benjamin Duer

She was unemployed. He worked construction.

He answered her online ad.

Both, in late July, agreed to rendezvous at Motel 6 on Sunset Strip Avenue NW for sex. He paid her $200.

They thought their transaction was a discreet, away from investigative eyes.

They were wrong.

Police Chief Harley Neftzer said area motels and hotels are engaged in a cooperative program with police to watch out for suspicious activities.

Those activities include criminal prostitution and drug deals, Neftzer said.

Motel officials helped police pick up the woman and her paying john on prostitution-related charges July 21.

“Someone noticed there were a lot of people going in and out of that room every hour,” said Motel 6 general manager Jason Deffendall.

“That’s a huge red flag.”

That anxious escort reviewer from a month ago gets quite a penalty for his Walter Mitty antics. Read more at WTOL.com…

Ex-Ohio official gets 1 yr. in prostitution case

A former Ohio official has been sentenced to a year in prison on his guilty plea to two counts of compelling prostitution.

Prosecutors said 46-year-old man used a Web site to promote a 17-year-old prostitute and to recommend or warn against other prostitutes. The man, of the Columbus suburb of Dublin, could have received up to 10 years at Thursday’s sentencing in Columbus.

The man served as Gov. Ted Strickland’s director of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2007. He was later transferred to the state prisons department before being laid off in a March 2008 budget cut.

In court, the man  acknowledged that he had caused “great grief” to family and friends. He also said he’s being treated for sex addiction and bipolar disorder.