Woman Advertised Her Prostitution Services Online

According to Plainville, Connecticut police, a woman worked as a prostitute out of her home and advertised her services online. Jennifer Roy, 34, is accused of soliciting an undercover police officer while her toddler was in the next room.

Police said they started investigating Roy about two months ago after a detective assigned to Internet crimes saw her ad on the online classified advertising site Craigslist. Craigslist does not allow advertising illegal activity. Although Roy’s ads did not explicitly say what she was offering, an officer who was working undercover went to Roy’s house at 51 Bartlett St. on Saturday.

He said he was responding to her ad and told her how much money he had. According to police, Roy responded that the amount of money he had was enough for an hour of sex. Other officers arrested Roy after receiving a signal from the officer speaking with her.

Roy was charged with prostitution and risk of injury to a minor. Her 17-month-old son was in another room when the officers went to her home.

Toledo Man Sentenced For Role In Child Prostitution Ring

A Toledo, Ohio, man was sentenced to 8 years in prison for his role in a nationwide prostitution operation that authorities say forced children as young as 12 to have sex at truck stops, hotels and brothels.

Deric Willoughby, 40, pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy and interstate transportation of minors for prostitution, U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy said.

Co-defendants Brandy Shope and Jennifer Huskey pleaded guilty earlier to the same charges and were both sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison. A fourth defendant, Richard Lamar Gordon, was sentenced to 5 years for transportation of a minor for prostitution.

Malaysian Police Bust Foreign Prostitution Ring

Malaysian police detained three Indonesian women believed to be involved in a prostitution ring providing sexual services to foreign workers in nearby factories.

After receiving a tip, police raided a house used as a brothel late Sunday in the southern state of Johor and arrested the women along with 11 Nepalese and Bangladeshi men, believed to be clients.

Initial investigations revealed that the syndicate had been in operation for a few weeks, adding that the prostitutes had entered the country with valid passports and social visit passes.

D.C. Madam’s Trial To Begin

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, a.k.a. the “D.C. Madam” trial, on federal charges of prostitution-related racketeering and money laundering, is set to begin in April. Palfrey’s “Pamela Martin & Associates” escort service boasted some 10,000 clients, including  Sen. David Vitter, a family-values Republican from Louisiana.

Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, an anti-prostitution crusader, resigned last year after admitting he was also a Palfrey client. He insisted that he received only massages, not sex.

Lawmakers Advocate Closing Indoor Prostitution Loophole

Lawmakers will consider closing a loophole in Rhode Island law that essentially allows prostitution as long as it takes place indoors.  Efforts to change the law have failed in the past, but the issue could get renewed attention following the prostitution scandal that led to the resignation of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. 

State Police Inspector Stephen Bannon told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday that many people are unaware that prostitution is legal in Rhode Island when it occurs indoors and in private.

Supporters of the bill to change the law say it would make it easier for police to crack down on brothels.  House Majority Leader Gordon Fox said in a statement that he expects the General Assembly to look carefully at closing the loophole once and for all.

Federal Judge Linked To Prostitution Ring

One of the country’s top federal judges has been linked to an investigation of a Denver-based prostitution ring. Edward Nottingham, the chief federal judge in Denver, Colo., was “implicated as a customer” in an ongoing IRS and Denver police investigation of an alleged prostitution operation called Denver Sugar/Denver Players.

The service advertised on the Internet as having “gorgeous adult Colorado companions.” According to a Denver television station, KUSA, Judge Nottingham’s nickname among the prostitutes was “Naughty.” Several “professional athletes,” lawyers and businessmen are also involved, officials said.

Unlike the prostitution investigation in New York that led to this week’s resignation of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the Denver case has received little attention outside Colorado.

Mom Arrested For Prostitution

A Highlands Ranch mother arrested for prostitution allegedly fondled an undercover officer in an upstairs bedroom of her residence while her two youngest children were in the room next door, authorities say. The woman, Sheri Sims, 39, was arrested Thursday for investigation of prostitution and child abuse.

While the undercover officer was with Sims, her two youngest children, ages 13 and 16, were in next room, said investigators in court papers filed in Douglas County. Her third child, 19, was downstairs, said authorities. The documents claim that Sims made “contact that went beyond (an) appropriate massage.”

After the Highlands Ranch mother disrobed and began touching the genitals of the naked undercover detective, he gave fellow officers an arrest signal, according to the documents. The investigation was conducted by the Douglas County Sheriff Department’s Special Investigations Unit, Pattern Crimes Unit and patrol division.

Undercover Sting Nets Six Linked To Prostitution

An undercover sting at a Springfield Gardens hotel has netted six people who authorities said were linked to chronic prostitution there. Three clerks at the Howard Johnson Express Inn at 153-95 Rockaway Blvd. and an alleged pimp were among the six arrested Friday at the three-story, 71-room hotel, law enforcement officials said yesterday.

Lamont Babb, 30, of Briarwood, was charged with third-degree attempted promoting prostitution and endangering the welfare of a child. While Babb was tending to business in the hotel, police said Babb’s 5-year-old daughter sat inside a car with two scantily clad women who had pending prostitution cases. Babb propositioned two undercover cops, saying he could be their pimp for the night.

That Howard Johnson, which is near JFK Airport and is just off the Belt Parkway, was also one of the Queens hotels where off-duty NYPD Detective Wayne Taylor and his madam girlfriend allegedly pimped out a 13-year-old runaway girl. Taylor was arrested in January.

Santa Cruz Prostitution Investigation Nets 12 Arrests

Santa Cruz police arrested 12 people suspected of involvement in prostitution after a month-long investigation that used plain-clothed officers and information gathered from the Internet.

The people arrested are suspected of soliciting or agreeing to engage in an act of prostitution. Male officers solicited women, female officers solicited men and officers arranged meetings at several hotels with people discovered on the Internet.

Suspects were discovered on social network Web sites, chat rooms and classified sites. The Web sites were used by men and women to both solicit sexual acts and to locate people willing to engage in paid sexual activity.

Those arrested are: Sheila Marie Tucker, 20, of Sacramento; Devan Marie Strauss, 21, of Sacramento; a 17-year-old girl; 28-year-old William Lester Dyas III, 28, of Oakland; Caroline Mendez, 29, of Santa Cruz; Rita Kaye Bordwine, 44, of Santa Cruz; Jason Alan Nama, 37, of San Jose; Angel Melchor, 49, of Santa Cruz; Fabian Martin Xuana, 22, of Santa Cruz; George Sepulveda Fonsenca, 30, of Santa Cruz; Jose Lombera, 25, of Santa Cruz; and Jose Saul Ayala, 33, of Santa Cruz.

New York Gov. Spitzer Under Pressure To Resign Over Prostitution Case

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer faces pressure to resign on Tuesday as well as questions about whether he will be prosecuted for any crime after a report linked him to a high-class prostitution ring.  A New York Times report said the man who made his name fighting corruption hired a $1,000-an-hour prostitute and was caught on a federal wiretap at least six times on February 12 and 13 arranging to meet with her at a Washington hotel.

Spitzer, a married 48-year-old Democrat who investigated prostitution as New York’s attorney general, apologized for what he described as a “private matter” but said nothing about resigning. He neither confirmed nor denied the report.

State Republicans called for him to step down.

News of the scandal rocked Wall Street, where power brokers resented Spitzer’s high-profile inquiries into financial cases when he was New York state’s chief prosecutor.