Officers arrested a woman last week who they say was running an escort service out of an elderly woman’s house.

The suspect was employed as the 92-year-old woman’s caregiver. She was allegedly using this home as a meeting place for clients.

Undercover police arrested her after responding to her ad online.

She was charged with sex for a fee and elder neglect.

In an effort to spruce up coffee sales, several barely there coffee drive-throughs have popped up over the last three years and the locals say the coffee they are serving isn’t the only thing that’s pipping hot. With business names like Brewlesque, Twin Perks, Peek-A-Brew and Java Juggs, the all female staff wear little more than a g-string, bikini top or just pasties. Five so-called ‘bikini baristas’ just North of Seattle in Everett have been charged with prostitution related crimes. The charges are the result of allowing customers to fondle and/or photograph them in various states of undress, and often within full view of passing motorists. The girls in question charged customers up to $80 for the lewd behavior.

Court records detail undercover police officers investigating allegations of public lewdness were allowed to photograph the women spreading their legs while wearing crotchless panties or licking whipped cream off each other’s exposed pubic regions.

Prosecutors chose to pursue prostitution charges because the sexually explicit conduct was done in exchange for money. The five defendants, who all worked for the Everett business ‘Grab-N-Go’, will face a judge later this month.

In reaction to the public’s concern over these establishments being more about sexual entertainment and less about coffee, several Washington cities have adopted stricter ordinances forbidding the wearing of anything less than a traditional bikini or face being regulated as an ‘adult establishment.’

Last year the state Department of Children and Families took 24 children into protective custody that were brought to Tampa for last year’s Super Bowl. “Miami is known as a destination city for human trafficking, and sporting events are generally recognized by the experts as magnets for prostitution,” said Trudy Novicki of the Kristi House, a program for sexually abused children.

Authorities remind tourists in the area that even though many of these girls working the city’s streets, hotels and bars may appear to be there voluntarily, many of them are actually the victims of pimps or are desperate runaways. Volunteers will familiarize themselves with photos of missing teens and preteens as they are often easy targets for pimps. Police say many of these girls are barely out of puberty and that makes them worth alot of money.

Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says that girls typically enter or are forced into prostitution at the age of 11 or 12.

Local authorities said that due to the large numbers of trafficked girls expected at this years Super Bowl they will be working with the FBI’s Innocence Lost Task Force.

Citizen volunteers have organized to distribute fliers that create awareness among the city’s citizens, tourists, restaurant and bar works and most importantly hotel staff and security. In years past, hotel staff provided the greatest number of tips regarding possible child trafficking.

Volunteers are not law enforcement and are limited to just providing the suspected prostitutes with a card containing telephone numbers where they can reach out for help. When a volunteer feels a girl is underage an being pimped they can call for police to respond and investigate.

Studies show that there are between 100,000 and 150,000 underaged sex workers who generate billions of dollars for their pimps. Sex trafficking is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise. A young girl forced into prostitution is raped by each and every ‘John’ she is forced to have sex with. A young girl trapped in prostitution for 5 years may be raped more than 6,000 times. Most pimps require their prostitutes to meet a quota that averages from 10-15 ‘Johns’ per night. Some girls report that during high demand times, like sporting events, they are required to have sex with as many as 45 ‘Johns’ in a single night.

Justin Thomas Loy (see photo left), 30, apparently got into a heated dispute with three escorts (aka prostitutes) over their $500 fee during the early morning hours of January 9. According to Loy’s roommate Jared McCuistion, 32, he fought with Loy after finding him in the bathroom striking one of the escorts with a hatchet. Loy then fled the residence, kidnapped a stepbrother and fled to Ardmore.

Loy and McCuistion shared a residence in the 5900 block of Asbury Street in Warr Acres.

The three escorts reportedly drove themselves to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries according to court records.

Loy turned himself in to Ardmore police the next day. Loy is currently being held in the Oklahoma County jail on a $145,000 bond. On January 19 Loy was formally charged with three felony counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and one count of felony kidnapping.

Loy’s next court date is set for February 11.

Loy’s prior criminal history includes a drug possession offense – he was on probation for that offense when this assault occurred.

Loy was discharged from the U.S. Nay in 2003 after testing positive for cocaine.

Sun Cha Aldrich, 61, (possible false birth date) was arrested Wednesday at the conclusion of a year long investigation by the Bureau of Narcotics and Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office. Aldrich was arrested on two felony complaints of solicitation of prostitution in Cleveland County within 1,000 feet of a school. Search warrants executed on Aldrich’s home and business turned up drugs that indicate she may have been involved trafficking – which will likely lead to felony cocaine trafficking, illegal possession of drug proceeds and unlawful wire transfers. Authorities seized vehicles and bank accounts in Aldrich’s name.

Aldrich ran the Oriental Tokyo Health Massage on 1035 N. Flood Ave. in Norman. The business is located next door to an after-school recreation center.

Court records show that Aldrich routinely wired thousands of dollars from drug and prostitution proceeds to locations in and outside of the United States.

“Oklahoma is on a trade route: I-35, I-40 corridors where they’re moving kids around, moving people from place to place to sell them, marketing them. Our children are vulnerable and our area, geographically makes us at risk,” said Mark Elam of the non-profit Oklahomans Against Trafficking Humans.

The department of justice says 200,000 U.S. children are at risk each year for trafficking into the sex industry and more than 17,000 children are brought into the country to be used as sex slaves. Eighty percent of sex slaves are women and girls, and 50% of them are under 21 years old.

The FBI routinely rounds up and prosecutes human sex traffickers in investigations dubbed “Innocence Lost” and most recently “Operation Cross Country I and II.” The roots of Innocence Lost can be found in investigations begun in Oklahoma City back in 2003, after a series of murders of prostitutes who worked at truck stops. The investigations led to the discovery of a loose network of more than 45 pimps and over 100 prostitutes, who recruited girls from Oklahoma City and followed trucking routes to Denver, Miami, Houston, and Dallas. Fourteen pimps have since been convicted on federal charges as a result of the Oklahoma City probes, with sentences as long as 210 months. Three major interstates cross Oklahoma City, and the truck stops here, such as Pilot and TravelCenters of America, are like little cities, with everything from restaurants to TV lounges. The parking lots can cover acres. The back row of each lot is known as “Party Row,” and the truckers know that’s where the girls are. Law enforcement officers monitoring CB radio traffic regularly hear girls ask, “Hey truckers, anyone want some commercial company?” If someone responds, they switch to a different frequency, then get down to business. “I’m blond-haired, blue-eyed, 34C . . . if you want to play with this baby doll, tell me what color your house is,” she will say, referring to his truck. He will often flash his lights so she knows where to go. A girl can have dozens of “dates” a night but will not stop until she has made her “trap,” the amount of money she has to bring home to her pimp.

Cindy (not her real name) is 14, with dyed blond hair and an $800 trap. Her pimp was Michael Thomas, FBI officials say, whose street name was “1-8,” a reference to time in an Oklahoma City gang. He had tattooed on his girls’ bodies the letters POE, for “Pimpin’ One Eight.” He would buy girls from other pimps, for as little as $50, give them names like Orgasm, and send them out to truck stops, charging $60 for oral sex, $80 for intercourse, and $100 for both. When Cindy told Thomas she wanted to leave his “stable,” he had another girl stab her in her arms and hands, according to the FBI.

Operation Cross County II led to the arrest of a well known South Robinson street prostitute, Brandie Stanley, and alleged pimp Germaine Coulter who was living in a $700,000 home in a gated neighborhood in the upscale Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond at the time (see previous story).

*Pictured left is an all too familiar scene on South Robinson Ave. in South Oklahoma City. A girl who appears to be underage is forced to prostitute as a ‘John’ picks her up and takes her to a local hotel (click thumbnail for larger image).

Deemed the Prostitution Diversion Initiative, Dallas police hope that treating women involved in street prostitution as victims will open the way to treatment and rehabilitation while avoiding criminal prosecution and jail.

Since the programs initiation police report that about half of the 375 women who were offered treatment took it. Of those 21 appear to be well on their way to turning their lives around. In addition police say the trust gained from these women in these programs has led to information critical in solving many other more serious crimes.

Police say that offering rehabilitation over incarceration benefits more than just the individual prostitute. Stings, prosecution and incarceration all come at a real cost to already overburdened city and state coffers. Prostitution is also most often an indicator of more serious criminal activity such as drug trafficking, assault, burglary and robbery – Not to mention the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Health officials claim one area in Dallas with four truck stops is the national epicenter of syphilis – with an estimated 1,300 prostitutes servicing more than 2,000 big rigs a day.

The stings start with a staging area setup in a vacant lot near where large numbers of prostitutes are known to solicit. Four mobile command trucks encircle tables and chairs manned by police and social service workers. After law enforcement searches the women for drugs or weapons they question them about criminal activity in the area – who’s pimping underage prostitutes, what’s being said on the streets about recent homicides, etc. Then social service workers assess the women’s drug, alcohol, and mental health counseling needs. The women also get STD tests and other medical care at the staging areas mobile medical health clinic.  The last stop is a mobile court room. To qualify for the rehabilitation option the woman must not have any felony warrants and most of all, she must seem to sincerely want help. The stings typically last well into the early morning hours.

Rehabilitation typically consists of 45-days of inpatient counseling, help with educational needs, child care and housing. Almost half of the women arrested in the stings have children and virtually all have drug and/or alcohol addictions.

While the programs successes are modest it is being watched by law enforcement agencies across the country. Dallas police report that several other states and agencies have requested more detailed information on their program.

Under the bill, girls under the age of 16 (age of consent) could not be charged criminally for acts of prostitution. Instead, girls 15-years old and younger would be evaluated for appropriate counseling and rehabilitation.

Unterman says the bill will not decriminalize underage prostitution, but will instead ensure that the girls are not victimized a second time by the criminal justice system.

According to a slue of published reports, D.C. now has a new law that says if you happen to be in an area of D.C. deemed a P.F.Z., Prostitution Free Zone (no that’s not where the hookers are giving their services away for free), then that is probable cause to assume you’re a lady of the evening.

Police say the law is being taken out of context while feminist sites are proclaiming the D.C.P.D is crazy with its “3 ribbed and your out” in the P.F.Z.

Read what Change.org has to say on the topic. Then skip over to the Washington City Paper for their perspective.

Excerpt 1:
Research published in 2005 found that the numbers of men who pay for sex had doubled in a decade. The ­authors attributed this rise to “a greater acceptability of commercial sexual contact”, yet many of our ­interviewees told us that they felt ­intense guilt and shame about paying for sex. “I’m not satisfied in my mind” was how one described his feelings after paying for sex. Another told me that he felt “disappointed – what a waste of money”, “lonely still” and “guilty about my relationship with my wife”. In fact, many of the men were a mass of contradictions. Despite finding their experiences “unfulfilling, empty, terrible”, they continued to visit prostitutes.

Excerpt 2:
Fifty-four per cent of these London buyers subscribed to the theory that prostitution decreases rape. There is no empirical basis for this theory, nonetheless it is assumed to be the truth by many people, including these buyers. In part as a justification for prostitution, men who bought sex reasoned that if prostitution did not exist then they would be more likely to rape women who were not prostitutes. This belief was clearly held by one man who stated that “Sometimes you might rape someone: you can go to a prostitute instead.” Forty-one per cent of 110 Glasgow and Edinburgh men who bought sex also believed this theory (Macleod, Farley, Anderson and Golding, 2008). Another man explained, “Society benefits. I’ve heard that levels of rape have decreased due to Internet porn.” And, “Prostitution is a last resort to unfulfilled sexual desires. Rape would be less safe, or if you’re forced to hurt someone or if you’re so frustrated you jack off all day.”
A related belief held by the interviewees is the notion that the concept of rape does not apply to prostitutes. Twenty-five per cent of these men believed that a prostitute cannot be raped, yet they tended to be aware of some of the factors that made women vulnerable.
Rape rate statistics from the US raise the possibility that there may actually be a positive association between legal prostitution in Nevada and higher rape rates in that state. The Nevada rate of rape was higher than the U.S. average and significantly higher than rates of rape in several more populous U.S.

You can read the entire study by clicking this link (links to a .pdf file).