Prostitute Arrested by Monument Park Reflects Rise in Illegal Activity

At 9:50 p.m. Tuesday Jennifer Muniz was walking the street of Highland Avenue near Orchard Street when a man she didn’t know slowly pulled his car up next to her. Muniz got in his car and after a short conversation offered him sex for $50, police said.

The man was an undercover Peekskill police officer who then arrested 26-year-old Muniz for prostitution, a Class B misdemeanor. Muniz has been arrested in Peekskill 11 times in the last nine years, all for drug related charges, according to Peekskill Police Lieutenant Eric Johansen. This was her first prostitution charge. She was arraigned in Peekskill City Court Wednesday morning and remanded to Westchester county jail.

Lt. Johansen said that he has received a few complaints of prostitution and that officers on patrol have noticed an increase in the “presence of prostitutes, particularly in the Monument Park area.”

July 2010 was the last time that Peekskill police charged someone with prostitution. In 2009 police also made one prostitution arrest. But between 2006 and 2008 prostitution was more prevalent, with 11 arrests in 2006, eight in 2007 and five in 2008, according to Lt. Johansen. 

“There was a lull in the action, for lack of a better term,” Johansen said, explaining that it seems to be picking up again. “We’re being very careful to ensure that this doesn’t grow any further than where we are at now.”

Neighbors have noticed the rise too. One Nelson Ave. resident, who would not allow her name to be published for fear of “retribution,” told Patch: “We find the remnants of sexual encounters all the time on Nelson—hand job gloves--which you'll also find on Main St., as well as used condoms on our lawns.”

The illegal activity by Monument Park is no secret in the city. The Democratic and Republican candidates for Mayor and City Council have both issued press releases that mention the problems. The Democrats issued a on Sept. 7 vowing to revitalize Monument Park, with a focus on "shifting heavy industry away from the neighborhood, promoting the rehabilitation of existing buildings, storefronts, and park, and targeting increased law enforcement to the area."

Democratic candidate for City Council Kathie Talbot said, “When I grew up on Orchard Street, the Monument and Highland Avenue retail shops actively served the large surrounding neighborhoods. The area was safe and clean. We can bring this neighborhood back and improve the quality of life for all."

The Republicans to the Democrats release on Sept. 12 calling the promise a “sham,” and blaming the current democratic administration for the problems.

“Ask people in the Orchard St. neighborhood what they think about the Democrats record since Mary Foster became Mayor and they’ll tell you about noise late into the night, prostitution, people loitering in the streets, the nuisance of heavy truck traffic and a crumbling infrastructure that had raw sewage bubbling into the basements of homes all along the street in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene,” Republican candidate for City Council Barbara Kerasiotes said.

Johansen said that the Department is careful to monitor areas they have previously cleaned up so that they do not become problematic again. He said that about ten years ago there was a brothel problem that he believes the Peekskill police department shut down.

“We had a minor problem with (brothels) in the past but there is no intelligence that is going on in Peekskill lately,” Johansen said.

The lieutenant explained that a lot of the prostitutes now are “freelancers,” who are heavily addicted to crack, cocaine and heroin.

“It is a really sad and lonely story,” he said.

The business is largely catered to the Hispanic population, Johansen said. Many of the “Johns” are Hispanic men who live in Peekskill on their own, away from their families.

“They get drunk and lonely,” Johansen said.

Despite the sad story, Johansen said the department plans to continue targeting prostitutes and Johns.

“(The Johns) can expect to be arrested and have their names and photos distributed to media outlets,” Johansen said.

“There may be problems brewing again but this has made us become aggressive in our enforcement to make sure it does not become the problem (it once was) again.”

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