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Warren closes down house suspected of prostitution in Warren neighborhood
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Police and Warren prosecutors are again targeting prostitution in the city, this time in a large house in a quiet residential neighborhood just east of Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
Police were first alerted to Daniel J. Blasco, 62, of 765 Kenilworth Ave. SE in January, when a woman told them Blasco was holding her against her will and forcing her to engage in prostitution.
The woman said Blasco assaulted and threatened her and arranged for her to have sex with customers at the Kenilworth address.
A monthslong investigation provided supporting evidence of some of the allegations, according to an affidavit filed with Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in support of a request for a restraining order to keep Blasco and others out of the home.
Police arrested Blasco Monday morning during a traffic stop and took him to the Trumbull County jail on a single felony count of promoting prostitution. No arraignment date has been set.
Officials at the scene Monday said the house would be boarded up.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay granted the restraining order Monday and set an injunction hearing for 9 a.m. Sept. 27 before Judge Andrew Logan to determine whether the house will remain boarded up.
Warren Law Director Greg Hicks filed a request with the judge asking that the home be declared a nuisance because of alleged criminal activity.
A search warrant approved Sunday by Judge Terry Ivanchak of Warren Municipal Court gave investigators permission to search the house.
The affidavit says investigators were looking for evidence of drug trafficking, human trafficking, racketeering, prostitution, promoting prostitution, compelling prostitution, procuring prostitution, corrupting another with drugs and possessing drug-abuse instruments.
Tracy Timko Sabau, assistant Warren law director, said investigators are aware of at least four women who claim to have engaged in prostitution at the home. Neighbors also have complained about the house.
Hicks said investigators conducted surveillance at the home and traced back an ad on a social media site to Blasco’s phone.
The affidavit also says police spoke with a “john” Sept. 8 after following him from the Kenilworth home, and he admitted answering an ad on the internet site backpage.com and getting sex for $100. He said it took place in a room of the house with a pink “stripper pole” in it.
A woman living nearby said neighbors told her when she moved onto Kenilworth last fall that there was prostitution taking place at Blasco’s home.
She said she sees women walking from Youngstown Road to the house regularly. She shot videos of some of the women, and she saw women flagging down and getting into cars.
The nuisance action the city filed is similar to the method it used in 2012 to shut down eight massage parlors where the city alleged prostitution was taking place.