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Complaints lead to prostitution sweep
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police said there will be more sweeps like the one Thursday in the Oak Hill Avenue and Hillman Street area on the South Side that netted five arrests on prostitution charges.
Police Chief Robin Lees said Friday an increase in complaints in illegal activity led to the joint operation by the Community Police Unit and the vice squad. He said they will be out again in the coming days to try to keep both the prostitutes and the men who seek them out of the area.
“Once an area has a reputation for that activity, it becomes more difficult to make lasting change,” Lees said.
Taken to the Mahoning County jail on prostitution charges as well as warrants were Amanda Geiger, 36, of South Hazelwood Avenue, who was arrested about 12:20 p.m. at West Warren and Glenwood avenues; Latoya Griffin, 33, of West Delason Avenue, who was arrested about 4 p.m. at Hillman Street and Breaden Avenue; Heather Maravola, 30, of West Chalmers Avenue, who was arrested at Market Street and Chicago Avenue; and Brittney Watson, 31, of Euclid Boulevard, who was arrested about 5:45 p.m. at Marion Avenue and Market Street.
Issued a citation on a prostitution charge was Phillisa Patton, 27, of West Indianola Avenue, who was cited about 4:15 p.m. at Market Street and West Warren Avenue.
They were released after they were booked into the jail and arraigned Friday in municipal court, except for Maravola and Patton, who did not show up for their hearing. Warrants were issued for their arrests.
The department ran a similar sting in the area in July and arrested five women and one man. Thursday’s operation was conducted the same as the one in July, with an officer driving an unmarked vehicle equipped with a GPS tracker and a device used to record their transactions. The officer would stop only when a woman would flag him down.
The women were arrested by other officers listening in once an offer of sex for money was made.
Lees said prostitution and drugs are linked, and all of those arrested have prior criminal records.
Maravola and Geiger are graduates of the drug court in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court this year and 2010, respectively. In 2015, Maravola was arrested on drug charges and told the judge at the time during her preliminary hearing in municipal court she had been clean for four years before she relapsed. She also had a sister who died of a heroin overdose.
Patton has a felony drug case pending in common pleas court.
Lees said because of the recent rise of opiate use in the area, the women’s activity may have been increasing so they could get money for more drugs.
Detective Sgt. Pat Kelly, head of the CPU, said his officers have been getting complaints about increased prostitution in the area, especially in the early morning or early evening hours.
Lees said police have to keep up the efforts to root out the prostitutes and the people who solicit them from the neighborhood.
“It will take time to get the word out through the network of prostitutes and Johns,” Lees said.