Lake Forest Man Among 12 Convicted in Police Sting

Twelve sex purchasers, including a 44-year-old man from Lake Forest, were convicted and sentenced Monday for agreeing to engage in sex acts with a woman whom they believed to be a prostitute, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.

Each of the 12, variously from Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of agreeing to engage in prostitution.

They were sentenced to three years of informal probation, 10 days in jail with the possibility of CalTrans in lieu of jail, donations to the Victim/Witness Emergency Fund, and must submit to AIDS testing and education.

On July 16, 2013, the defendants drove up to an undercover officer, whom they believed to be a prostitute, near the area of 1400 East First Street in Santa Ana. The defendants agreed to engage in sex acts with the officer for a price ranging from $20 to $100. The defendants and the victim arranged to meet in a motel and were arrested by officers from the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD). The defendants in this case were arrested as part of a covert operation by SAPD.

The area is known to law enforcement to be a high-prostitution area and is known to frequently be used by individuals who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers.

These cases were prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney’s Human Exploitation And Trafficking (HEAT) Unit, which also targets defendants who create a demand for prostitution by soliciting and purchasing sex, which
increases the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children.

The HEAT Unit uses a tactical plan called PERP: Prosecution of human trafficking perpetrators and sex purchaser; education for law enforcement to properly handle human trafficking and pandering cases; resources to raise public awareness and provide assistance to the victims; and publicity to
inform the community about the problem and notify human traffickers and sex purchasers that this crime cannot be perpetrated without suffering severe consequences.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced in April 2013 that he will publicize the names of defendants convicted of sexually exploiting women or children by soliciting sex acts as part of the campaign to reduce the demand for human exploitation and trafficking.