Prostitution

SEATTLE -- As part of an undercover sting operation three years ago, the Des Moines, Wash., Police Department hired a convicted rapist to have sex with women suspected of being prostitutes, the police chief has acknowledged.The rapist, police informer Robert Berdue, was authorized not only to get an agreement to have sex for money but to engage in sexual acts, which he did, according to court records and Martin Pratt, police chief in this suburb south of Seattle.Critics of the ploy include defense attorneys, prosecutors and rape-relief counselors.

A 34-year-old woman arrested in a July raid of a Finksburg massage parlor was convicted on a single prostitution charge but will be allowed to wipe the conviction from her record.Carroll Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold on Monday convicted Miyon W. Heil -- who sometimes uses the name Candy Doe -- of engaging in prostitution, a misdemeanor.The judge granted Ms. Heil probation before judgment, which will let her erase the conviction after three years of unsupervised probation.Ms. Heil was one of four arrested in a July 16 raid on Sunn Express Oriental Spa at 2025 Suffolk Road.

County police arrested 10 men in Laurel on Thursday on charges of soliciting for prostitution or lewd acts during a sting operation in which detectives posed as prostitutes.Police said they began the operation at Route 198 and Whiskey Bottom Road at 6: 30 p.m. in response to complaints from residents about prostitution.Prostitutes have routinely been a nuisance to residents near the intersection, where police have run frequent sting operations.Those charged with solicitation for prostitution were: Charles R. Dupont, 64, of the first block of S. Gill St. in Laurel; Ernest Seawright, 34, of the 13000 block of Larohdale Road in Laurel; Dean R. Hawes, 35, of the 20000 block of Rainsboro Drive in Ashburn, Va.; Paul W. Marsh, 42, of the 4200 block of 47th St. in Bladensburg; Eric W. Antwi, 32, of the 8800 block of Flowerstock Row in Columbia; and Randal K. Calloway, 29, of the 3400 block of Andrew Court in Laurel.

Here we have the distinguished City Councilman Timothy D. Murphy, who looks like the actor Michael J. Fox on a particularly earnest and buttoned-down day, confronting prostitution in South Baltimore and declaring formally that he is against it.Somebody's gotta be. On strips like Patapsco Avenue in Brooklyn, there are some souls who apparently haven't gotten the message drummed at us daily: To have sex with strangers today is to roll the dice with your life....

Howard County police have made 25 prostitution and drug arrests after a monthlong operation in the areas of North Laurel, Jessup and Elkridge. Police said the operation started June 7 in response to complaints from residents and businesses along U.S. 1. Female plainclothes officers were placed in areas mentioned in the complaints. Suspects who made offers for sex were arrested for solicitation of prostitution. Male officers in plain clothes drove through the targeted areas in unmarked cars, arresting those who offered sex for money.

Prostitution on Pulaski Highway and a shooting in October of a police officer on the roadway sparked two Baltimore County Council members to offer remedying legislation.But the message at a council work session yesterday was, "Thanks, but no thanks." After a long discussion, it was clear that neither measure -- a bill to create prostitution-free zones and a resolution to require police officers to wear bulletproof vests -- had enough votes to pass at Monday night's formal meeting."We don't need constant resolutions," county Administrative Officer Merreen E. Kelly told the council.

The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police has demanded an apology from mayoral candidate A. Robert Kaufman, who recently issued a news release that said city police officers frequent prostitutes. Kaufman, founder of the City Wide Coalition, which pushes for city insurance reform, made the comments while proposing a red-light district in Baltimore for legalized prostitution. Kaufman, 68, said the move would help reduce the city's high rate of venereal disease. In the release sent to news media last month, Kaufman called prostitution a "victimless" crime.

THE CONTINUING deficits facing Maryland are of grave concern to all of its citizens. It is vital that we fully fund such important initiatives as the Thornton education reform program, yet we are hard-pressed to find the money. Both houses of the legislature have passed versions of slot machine legalization, for which Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has worked so hard. But even this may not provide enough return to the state to meet the need. To solve this problem, we must be bold and imaginative.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Sixty men arrested in a Wes Palm Beach prostitution sting last week could soon be getting an unpleasant surprise when they open their morning newspaper.The Police Department and Mayor Nancy Graham want to buy advertisements listing the names of the men arrested in the Wednesday night sting and publish them in daily newspapers that circulate in Palm Beach County."We couldn't get anyone to publish them in stories, so Nancy's going to take out ads," police spokesman Sgt. Rob Robertson said Friday.

HAVANA -- It's early evening on the Malecon, Havana's beautiful seaside boulevard. The young miniskirted girls are out in the moist pink-blue air, tugging at the male tourists, flirting, offering to spend the night with men old enough to be their grandfathers in exchange for a six-pack of Coke, entry to a discotheque and $6.Lisa, a pretty, 13-year-old bleached blond, personifies this city's return to the decadence that Fidel Castro's revolution was supposed...