Good News for Columbus Hookers...Tighter rules for vice...

[Guest jeffOH]

Thought I'd share this article from today's Columbus Dispatch.

 

 

New squad chief moves to limit sexual contact between police, suspects

 

By Jodi Nirode THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Columbus vice-squad officers are being reined in once again on just how far they can go to arrest strippers and prostitutes.

Deputy Chief Antone Lanata issued an order yesterday that will limit how much sexual contact officers can have with the prostitutes and whether they can undress during arrests.

The order is effective immediately, Lanata said.

It comes after Lanata, who took the job of leading the vice squad in January, reviewed arrests made by the vice squad this year and in 2002.

"On the surface, it appears officers are engaging in sexual contact,’’ Lanata said of the reports.

Lanata’s order marks the second time in four years that vice officers’ actions have been called into question.

In 1999, the Police Division came under fire after The Dispatch reported that at least one vice officer had sexual intercourse with prostitutes before arresting them.

Following that publicity, vice officers were ordered by Cmdr. Stephen Gammill not to have sex with prostitutes, and the officer in question voluntarily transferred out of vice.

But a year later, Chief James G. Jackson gave the vice-squad officers more leeway in what they could do, allowing them to become completely naked with prostitutes and also allowing a certain amount of touching with the prostitutes when "absolutely necessary.’’

In the 2000 order, Jackson even said that officers would not be in violation of policy if they "momentarily’’ engage in sex "in spite of all reasonable efforts of the officer to stop’’ it.

In one of the 2002 cases that Lanata reviewed, vice squad Officer Richard Stevens went to a North Side strip club four times in one week, buying a total of five lap and back-room dances from the same woman.

In misdemeanor charges filed against dancer Dana Lee Layne, Stevens wrote that she had massaged his groin and that she had forced him to massage hers. He also said that she had pulled aside her G-string to sit on his lap.

Lt. Larry Chaplin, who supervises the vice squad, said Stevens did nothing wrong.

Layne, contacted last month, said Stevens never exposed himself, but said the charges against her were "bogus.’’ What she did was nothing more than a common lap dance, she said.

In another case, which occurred at a private home last month, Columbus Police Officer James Jardine wrote that a woman masturbated him for $400 during an investigation of an escort service for prostitution.

Charges such as these, detailed in court records, sometimes grab the attention of city prosecutors and court clerks.

One clerk said that details written by officers are sometimes so salacious that she "should have a cigarette after reading it.’’

That’s just the type of embarrassment that Lanata said he wants the vice squad to avoid.

Though Lanata has offered detailed explanations of what vice-squad officers now can — and can’t — do, he asked that the details not be published.

Doing so, he said, would give prostitutes a sure-fire means of distinguishing officers from customers, he said.

As part of the change, Lanata also ordered Cmdr. Richard Crosby to call other law-enforcement agencies across the country to see how they handle such issues.

Lanata also is questioning whether many of the vice-squad investigations are cost-effective.

"I have to wonder about the money being spent with the convictions we’re getting . . . especially when the courts are not concerned in giving high penalities,’’ Lanata said.

In the example involving dancer Layne, she was charged with five counts of unlawful conduct, a first-degree misdemeanor. But even if she is convicted of all charges, the punishments can’t run consecutively.

So the most Layne could receive for all five dances that police say were illegal is a sixmonth jail sentence — the same possible sentence she could receive if the detective had charged her with one dance.

The court records don’t detail how much was spent in that case, and Chaplin said he didn’t have the figures at hand.

Lap dances, Chaplin said, typically cost between $20 and $40, though back-room dances — in which the dancer goes to a private room with the patron — are more.

Vice-squad detectives are allowed to drink one beer an hour while working in the bars, unless they were approved in advance to drink more, he said.

Chaplin, contacted last night at home, said he wasn’t aware of Lanata’s ruling.

He said that Chief Jackson’s changes in 2000 allowed detectives to drastically reduce the amount of prostitution in problem areas, Chaplin said. Last year, the vice squad’s 35 officers made 3,200 arrests for prostitution, gambling, narcotics and other violations.

"We’re going to do our best with the limitation, but it’s going to be a problem obtaining the elements to lock them up,’’ Chaplin said of the new rules.

Prostitution charges require that there be some contact, Chaplin said.

Vice officers could try instead for a solicitation charge, which carries the same penalities but doesn’t require contact, he said.

Aiming solely for solicitation charges, though, isn’t realistic, Chaplin said.

"They (prostitutes) won’t talk to us,’’ he said. "If they’re not permitted to touch us you might as well take (the prostitution charge) off the books because it’s no longer going to be effective.’’

[email protected]

 

JEFF [email protected]

[Guest jeffOH]

I e-mailed the journalist who wrote this article telling her that I thought it would be a good idea to follow-up on what Deputy Chief Lanata said regarding the "cost-effectiveness" of some of the vice-squad sting operations. Well, apparently she thought it was a good idea and is going to do a follow-up piece. She wants to interview me and is submitting paperwork to get the information regarding sting operation costs.

 

This could be fun.

 

JEFF

[email protected]

[Guest NakedTony]

Please keep us up-to-date on this. Sounds like it could be an interesting article!