Sting nets four arrests

Vice cops often see North Side prostitutes while
making undercover drug buys.

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — Smile if you considered buying sex from a corner sales lady on Arlington Street on Friday morning, then changed your mind.

Four men — including 81-year-old Archie Barnes of Warren — were caught in a hooker sting. The others are: Harvey Toy, 59, of Girard; Ronnie Jackson, 37, of Youngstown; and Doug Martinec, 35, of Cortland.

All are charged with soliciting sex from an undercover police officer and are expected to be arraigned Monday in municipal court. If convicted, they face up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Barnes faces an additional charge of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle. Patrolman Chad Zubal said he found a loaded pistol in the glove compartment of Barnes’ Chrysler 300.

Barnes told police he drives to the North Side every day, to stop at the McDonald’s on Fifth Avenue. Police said he offered $20 for a sex act.

As the fake hookers — Patrolwomen Nancy Tipple and Dorothy Johnson — strolled Arlington in the chilly morning air, they attracted a lot of attention from men driving by. Many of the potential customers, some in obvious work vehicles such as tow trucks and vans with roof ladders, circled back several times before stopping to check things out.

Only four took the bait.

Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney and Lt. Dave McKnight, commander of the vice squad, sat in an unmarked car not far from the action. Sweeney used a cell phone to alert other vice cops positioned on side streets whenever he spotted a prospective sex customer.

McKnight used binoculars to watch the “ladies.” Every once in a while he’d critique their sales pitches.

“Nancy’s got a good wave,” McKnight said as Tipple flagged down a passing car. “Dorothy’s got to learn to wave.”

It was Johnson’s first time, so she’s just learning the universal hooker come-over-and-pick-me-up wave.

One of the would-be johns grew suspicious and drove away after telling Johnson she was too pretty to be out selling herself.

After her first bust, Johnson looked in the distance toward where she thought McKnight and Sweeney were parked. She did a quick thumb’s up victory sign and then continued her stroll.

“She’s happy,” McKnight said with a chuckle from behind his binoculars. “Look at the smile on her face.”

Toward the end of the vice squad sting, around 11:30 a.m., a tan car moved to the curb near Tipple. The driver asked her age, she told him 22. He asked for proof.

“You think I carry a f------ driver’s license?” Tipple tough-talked.

McKnight and Sweeney cheered their streetwise-sounding fake hooker.

The car pulled away after more back and forth chatter but no sex sale. It turned out the driver (traveling on a suspended license) and his passenger were sharing a 40-ounce bottle of beer. They were stopped by police on North Avenue and given citations.

McKnight said since most prostitutes crave drugs and alcohol, the men in the tan car wanted to entice Tipple to go with them to “party.” He said for men looking to buy sex, it’s like drug use — a compulsive act.

“We’ve had a lot of complaints, mostly from residents here, and when we make [undercover] drug buys we see the prostitutes,” McKnight said of the Arlington neighborhoods that attract customers who use the freeway. “Because of drug cases, we can’t devote as much time as we’d like to prostitutes.”

He said Patrolmen Stephan Price and Mike Brindisi, who work the South Side, typically arrest two prostitutes each week. Manpower-packed hooker stings usually operate twice a year.

Half the customers, McKnight said, are out-of-towners.

He hopes arresting the johns has an impact in reducing prostitution, not just on Arlington but on the lower South Side — Market Street and Oak Hill Avenue.

meade@vindy.com