Monday, June 18, 2012
The newest chapter in the city of Warren’s and the state of Ohio’s ongoing offensive against prostitution and human trafficking is scheduled to unfold today in the Trumbull County courtroom of Common Pleas Judge W. Wyatt McKay in Warren.
There, Judge McKay will preside over a hearing designed to determine whether a restraining order issued last week padlocking eight Warren massage parlors should be made permanent. Toward that end, 15 customers of the businesses — and we use that term loosely — have been ordered to testify about their experiences there. In return, they’ll receive immunity from prosecution. All of them, according to state and local investigators, admit indulging in sex for hire.
We suspect and hope that at the end of the day, more than sufficient lurid and incriminating testimony will give the good judge more than sufficient legal leeway to lock the doors and throw away the keys for good to these public nuisances.
Clearly, decent and law-abiding residents of Warren have long sought permanent closing of these so-called health spas and a permanent erasure of the town’s smudge as the prostitution capital of Ohio.
Over the past few weeks, progress toward that end has been swift and commendable on both the local and state fronts. The state attorney general’s office, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the city police and law departments carried the fruits of their yearlong investigation to concerted action that resulted in well-coordinated raids, health- license revocations, temporary shutdowns and subpoenas of the johns who frequented the establishments.
Action against ‘modern-day slavery’
Coincidentally, the Ohio Legislature did its part last week in cleansing Warren and the state of human trafficking – often a key ingredient in prostitution establishments and alleged to have been the source of some of the Warren spas’ employees. The House and Senate approved legislation that increases dramatically the severity of human-trafficking penalties and increases help for victims.
State Sen. Capri Cafaro, a Democrat from Trumbull County, used the Warren sting as evidence of the need for stricter penalties.
She noted that authorities believe Asian women were “jockeyed” or trafficked to Warren from Korea by way of New York City.
“Make no mistake. This is modern-day slavery,” Cafaro said before the Senate’s 32-0 vote. Gov. John Kasich supports the bill and plans to sign it quickly.
PROSTITUTION-PURGING PARTNERSHIP
Those new and aggressive statutes, coupled with the city-state blitz against prostitution, look destined to produce tangible and long-term results for the reputation of Warren, the Mahoning Valley and the state.
Warren law director Greg Hicks and other state and federal authorities he’s contacted have called the local-state prostitution-busting partnership a model for others.
We agree and would urge other communities in the Valley plagued by suspicious “health spas” to seek guidance from Warren leaders on how their plan evolved and developed.
That model, however is not yet complete. Its completion rests with a decision from Judge McKay after today’s testimony to just say no to prostitution and human trafficking by permanently enjoining the Warren spas from operation.
In so doing, authorities would have a complete road map toward purging prostitution and human trafficking from towns large and small across Ohio and the entire United States.