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Woman faces 29th prostitution charge
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police cited a woman on her 29th prostitution charge early Tuesday on a South Side street.
Police charged Shirley Ingram, 44, of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, with loitering to engage in prostitution at Hillman and West Warren avenues about 2:25 a.m. after officers saw her approach a car she flagged down.
Reports said Ingram has a record of prostitution-related offenses going back 20 years; she received her first citation Aug. 20, 1994.
Officers on patrol spotted a car driven by a 53-year-old man stop in the middle of Hillman Avenue and saw Ingram lean into the passenger-side window; then she got into the car. Police then pulled the car over.
Reports said Ingram told officers she flagged down the car because the driver was a “good friend,” but she did not know his name.
Reports also said police had noticed Ingram walking in the area for several hours and that prostitutes are known to frequent the area. She was given a summons to appear Tuesday in Youngstown Municipal Court.
Police cited the driver of the car for impeding the flow of traffic. He also has a hearing pending in municipal court.
City Prosecutor Dana Lantz said though there are chronic offenders of the city’s prostitution ordinance, cases such as Ingram’s are rare.
Lantz said typically a repeat prostitution offender is looking for money to feed a drug habit. Lantz said the amount of jail time or fines someone gets for a prostitution varies from case to case, and sometimes repeat offenders draw tough sentences. However, she said Ingram has done long stretches of jail time before and they seem to have no effect.
“She’s done plenty of jail time,” Lantz said.
She said prostitutes often work the same area, and when police close that area down to them, they’ll move to another part of town.