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Cleveland Police Crack Down On High-End Prostitution
POSTED: 5:48 pm EST February 16, 2007
UPDATED: 6:24 pm EST February 16, 2007
CLEVELAND -- A secret Cleveland police operation designed to crack down on high-priced prostitution is not secret anymore.

A NewsChannel5 exclusive uncovered the biggest anti-prostitution initiative in Cleveland history, and the effort mandated by Mayor Frank Jackson has already produced dozens of arrests.

The Cleveland Police Department has been quietly working to stop what police say is high-priced, high-level prostitution.

Police said the intersection of West 47th Street and Lorain is a prostitution hot spot, but police said you won't find the girls you meet there on a street corner, reported NewsChannel5's Joe Pagonakis.

Police arrested 28-year-old Lisa Robinson and 21-year-old Sara Lewandowski. NewsChannel5 was there exclusively as both were charged with promoting prostitution at a high-level Cleveland hotel.

Police said Robinson, who is married, came to the hotel after undercover police said they called her number from an ad in a popular local magazine.

Both Lewandowski and Robinson said they did not promote prostitution, but rather, entertainment.

But Cleveland police said otherwise. Police said the duo took $600 in cash, telling an undercover officer on police surveillance videotape that "he would get off."

Police said money was exchanged and Lewandowski and Robinson were arrested even though they said they weren't promoting any physical contact in exchange for the cash.

Half an hour earlier, police arrested 26-year-old Jennifer Wiesman.

Police said Wiesman gets $170 just to show up at the hotel. Police said Wiesmen told officers she just offered a massage, a $300 massage.

Police said Wiesman is also charged with promoting prostitution.

Police said the magazines that post the ads aren't doing anything illegal and the so-called agencies stay clean because they make the women involved sign a waiver.

So, the women are essentially on their own; if they're arrested, it's up to them to prove they aren't promoting prostitution.

In the meantime, millions of dollars are exchanged, and police said at times the men who use these services are robbed, get sexually transmitted diseases or are assaulted.

The mayor is working on legislation trying to regulate the so-called escort operations.

Original link: http://www.newsnet5.com/news/11037547/detail.html

 
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