Vice detectives and patrol officers make almost daily arrests on prostitutes working on the street along North Main and East Third streets. Neighborhood and business groups have complained the prostitution degrades the quality of life in those neighborhoods and hurts the neighborhood businesses.
Such daily operations have not had the desired impact on prostitution, so the vice squad decided to target the johns through an “in-call escort” sting, placing ads for escort services on backpage.com, an Internet site that offers classified ads for “adult entertainment.” On Monday, there were 16 ads for “escorts” in the Dayton area.
Detectives did not anticipate the demand when they placed the ad. “We had to cut off the phone line when we closed down the operation Friday.
“People were still calling the number, despite all the publicity from the first arrest,” Lt. Brian Johns, head of the narcotics/vice unit, said Monday.
That first arrest was Brian Donoher, Kettering Fairmont High School athletic director. Donoher, 42, the son of famed University of Dayton men’s basketball coach Don Donoher, was arrested the afternoon of Feb. 1 and taken to the Montgomery County Jail where he was held briefly before posting bond.
He was charged Saturday with soliciting a prostitute, a third-degree misdemeanor, and possessing a criminal tool, a first-degree misdemeanor. The alleged criminal tool was the cellphone he used to contact the “escort,” who was an undercover police officer.
Also arrested in the decoy operation and facing the identical charges were:
• Michael T. Lykins, 40, of Dayton
• Justin Michael Davidson, 28, of Beavercreek
• Benjamin A. Marlow, 35, of Centerville
• Thomas Graves Jr., 64, of Middletown
• Christopher R. Zornes, 28, of Kettering
• Joseph T. Plunk, 43, of Dayton
• Raynarde A. Brown, 23, of Dayton
All eight requested sexual services. After his arrest, Donoher told police he had done the same thing “about 10 different times in the last year,” according to the police report.
The school district placed Donoher on paid administrative leave from his $101,492 a year job shortly after his arrest. Donoher does not hold a teaching position at the school.
The vice squad obtained an apartment in a downtown location and took out the online ads such as “Red Rover, Red Rover let ... Oh you wanna come over to my secure, upscale incall location?”
Attached to the ads were pictures of women — with no faces showing — and a cellphone number. In each case, the man called the number and negotiated a rate with the undercover officer depending on what was requested. The rates ranged from $60 to $100.
The officer would then give directions to the apartment. Upon arrival, the man and the officer would make small talk until the man presented the money. The officer then directed the man to the back bedroom, while the officer went into a bathroom “to put on something sexy.” Once in the bedroom, three vice detectives came out of another room to make the arrest.
All the conversations between the men and the officers were videotaped and audiotaped.
Six of the men were married. All but one agreed to talk with police without an attorney present. All said they made a mistake. None had prior prostitution-related convictions in Dayton.
News of Donoher’s arrest gained media attention beginning late Wednesday night.
“Despite all the publicity, people keep answering the ads,” Lt. Johns said. “I guess they were just oblivious.”
Johns said his detectives run 10 to 15 decoy operations annually both on the street and through Internet ads. “We hope by targeting the johns, we can cut down on the number of men coming to Dayton for sex,” he said.
“We do see a different client for the escorts. The clients can afford the higher prices. I’ve arrested doctors, dentists, accountants,” Johns said. “It’s the difference between those who can afford $20 on the street or $80 to $100 from escorts for the same act.”
Prostitution and prostitution-related arrests have dropped from 835 in 2009 to 470 in 2011, a 44 percent decline.
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