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Alleged prostitute solicitor may not be cited
By Robyn Moormeister,
robynm@theunion.com
January 19, 2007
While sheriff's investigators extend their
search for prostitutes who allegedly assaulted a Lake of the
Pines man during a botched business deal, it is unlikely the man
who solicited the illegal activity will be cited.
"We have to find the prostitutes first to confirm there was a
transaction," said Nevada County Sheriff's Det. Dan Saunders,
"but if we do, I would seriously doubt they would incriminate
themselves."
Nevada County Sheriff Keith Royal said investigators need
corroboration or other evidence a crime occurred -other than a
confession - to make an arrest for any crime.
"If someone came to us and said 'I just killed 25 people,' we
have to make sure it happened," Saunders said. "You can't just
go by someone's word."
During his years working undercover prostitution stings in
Sacramento, he said, investigators could not arrest a solicitor
until two things happened: a conversation about the transaction,
then an "overt action," such as money changing hands.
The woman who allegedly wielded the billy club during Saturday's
incident, Royal said, has a history of prostitution in Los
Angeles and Stockton. His investigators are looking for her with
the aid of Sacramento Police detectives and if she is found she
will be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.
The LOP man called the Sheriff's office Saturday evening to
report he was maced and beaten by prostitutes.
He had located one of the women's ads for "erotic services" on
Craigslist.com and called her, the man told The Union Thursday.
"I called the woman to come to my house, and she came with a
driver," he said. "Things didn't go well, and I told her I'd pay
for gas money and she refused. She pulled out a can of mace."
(It is the Union's policy not to name a crime suspect unless the
person is arrested, cited or charged).
The man had already paid the woman $270, Royal said, and he
refused to wear a condom at the prostitute's request, so she was
leaving with his money.
The man said the prostitute sprayed him, and he chased her into
his backyard. As she was climbing over his fence, he said, the
other woman got out of her Chevrolet Tahoe, maced him and beat
him with the club as he tried to "dodge and weave."
"It was bigger than a police billy club," he said. "It stung me.
I got knocked over and rolled into the bushes. It still hurts."
He said he didn't think that he might implicate himself in a
crime if he called the police.
"I was beat up and robbed," he said. "That's all I was
thinking."
He said he regrets making the call now that the incident has
been publicized, though he expressed no remorse for calling a
prostitute.
"My wife left me two years ago," he said. "I live out there
where it's isolated, and I like sex."
The man should be exposed for endangering others by insisting on
unprotected sex with a prostitute, said Susan Wallace, an
attorney and victim of an assault and attempted murder at her
Nevada City home in 2005.
"To insist on not wearing a condom is so stupid and dangerous,"
Wallace said Thursday, saying the man could have spread HIV.
"There ought to be some accountability."
The man didn't commit "the crime of the century," she said, but
she believes police are not being aggressive enough in their
investigation.
"If someone were interested, there would be a way of locating
independent corroboration," she said.
But Royal said all investigators have against the man is his
confession, and that is most likely all they will ever have.
To contact Staff Writer Robyn Moormeister, e-mail
robynm@theunion.com or
call 477-4236.
Original link: http://www.theunion.com/article/20070119/NEWS/101190169
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