Prostitution arrests carry their sting

Recent Medford case has once again raised issue of how aggressively police should battle the crime

By DANI DODGE
Mail Tribune

While it's sometimes referred to as the world's oldest profession, questions still arise over how to deal with it.

Medford police actively investigate prostitution in the city, especially when complaints are lodged. But women caught in a recent sting question whether they should be arrested in the first place.

"Prostitution is a victimless crime," said Kimberly Vandermolen of Grants Pass after her sentencing last week. "It should be decriminalized."

But police and prosecutors see the issue differently. They say not only does state law require them to go after people trading sex for money, but they are preventing other crimes in the process.

"It's not a victimless crime," said Medford Sgt. Roy Skinner. "There are both victims and perpetrators in crimes. They steal from the people they are being hired for - and can be physically assaulted themselves."

Skinner noted the Green River killer went after prostitutes because they were easy targets. He pointed out that children suffer, too.

"In the last sting we did, one of the girls who showed up left the baby in the car," he said. "The baby was sick. ... She'd rather turn a trick than get her baby medical attention."

That sting occurred Sept. 5 after police received two complaints regarding escort services. In one case, a wife had found her husband with an escort; in the other, a man complained an escort stole from him.

To set up the sting, Medford police detectives hired a decoy to call local escort services and invite the women to a hotel room rigged for surveillance. Police say each woman took money for sex.

Four of the six women, including Vandermolen, have pleaded guilty to prostitution. Two women and one man - who drove a woman to the motel - are awaiting trial. Each of the women who pleaded guilty was sentenced to probation.

"There has to be something aggravating about the situation for me to ask for jail time," said Deputy District Attorney Rachel Bridges. "But I do ask for supervised probation because it's a way to track where the money is coming from and they are required to have a job or go to school."

This was Medford's third prostitution sting, but the first to net so many arrests. Skinner said it's not surprising.

"Law enforcement considers escorts prostitutes," Skinner said. "Every male who calls up with $150 wants a sexual service - they don't want a dinner companion. And the girls who provide the service understand that."

Robin DeBates, the director of the Women's Resource Center at Southern Oregon University, questions officers going after the women and not the "johns" - the men who hire them.

"Prostitution wouldn't exist if there was no market for it," DeBates said.

But since there are no streetwalking prostitutes in Medford, it's complicated to do a sting on the johns. It can be done, but only if a female decoy advertises an escort service, Skinner said. But that could be dangerous because the john would set the time and place and police would not have control.

"We literally did this entire investigation in one evening," Skinner said. "And we were in control."

DeBates said feminists don't have a single position on prostitution prosecution.

"There are some women who believe prostitution is a legitimate way for women to make a living, and the opposite view is it's a form of sexual violence," DeBates said.

She believes in supporting each woman's decision.

"If they are feeling that's where their personal power is, then I would support that, and I would work toward legalizing prostitution," DeBates said. "Or if they are feeling victimized, then I would work toward making sure it wasn't a necessity.

"For me, it's about their experience in the sex industry and if it's something they are freely choosing to do."

Vandermolen, who said she no longer works as an escort, said she doesn't know anyone in that business who wants it legalized. But the women do want it decriminalized, which means police wouldn't go after it as a crime.

"The women I've known over the years in this business are always striving to get out," Vandermolen said. "I've sat with women studying for the GED (general equivalency diploma) and college and can't wait to leave this life behind.

"When the justice system comes in and puts their foot in your back, it can make it impossible for someone to get out."

A local minister believes prostitution should remain illegal, but that the women should be provided the help they need to find other means of support.

"There has to be consequences for behavior that isn't good for our society," said Chad McComas, pastor of the Set Free Christian Fellowship in Medford. "If we decriminalized it, then maybe more women would go after it and more men would use women in a bad way and it would lead to more pain.

"Go ahead and arrest these ladies, but give them the option of drug addicts and let them get help so they don't go back on the street."

In Portland, instead of jail time or probation, some women are referred to a program called LOTUS - Liberating Ourselves Through Understanding Sexploitation - that uses counseling to help prostitutes find a new living.

Prosecutor Bridges said that because Medford doesn't have a similar program, probation is the best alternative.

"Hopefully, individual counseling can do some of what that program does," she said. "It (probation) forces them to either get into school, or job training, or to find and maintain lawful employment."

But some of those women who were arrested in the September sting said prosecution only hurt them. Tammy Bonton of Medford - who also pleaded guilty to prostitution last week - is a single mother of four children.

"We are paying for rent and school clothes," she said. "I live in a nice neighborhood and my kids are A and B students.

"This has been horrible and all I was doing was taking care of people."

She's now working a graveyard shift pumping gas.

"We're not slime," Bonton said. "We're people."

Vandermolen said the highly publicized arrests, which carry more stigma than other crimes, have made it hard for some women to get and keep legal jobs. She said she's more fortunate than some because she has a job in a veterinary clinic. She said it would be better to allow the women to get out of the business in their own time.

Vandermolen said each step back to her life after the arrest has been difficult. Going back to work. Meeting with friends and family. She hasn't yet been back to church.

"I'm a born-again Christian and I have been forgiven," she said. "I just have to forgive myself now."

Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail ddodge@mailtribune.com 

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