Photo Gallery | SLIDESHOW: McCracken Co. investigators charge 8 with soliciting prostitution
MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY (KFVS) - McCracken County detectives say they have arrested eight different men from three different states for soliciting prostitution.
Detectives with the McCracken County Sheriff’s Department Drug Division recently conducted a two day investigation in McCracken County titled “Operation Losing Proposition”. It was an operation conducted to highlight sex buyers as perpetrators and stop prostitution and sex trafficking in western Kentucky.
All eight men arrested were charged with soliciting prostitution:
Rusty Davis, 43 years old, Marble Hill, Missouri; Michael Keller, 57 years old, Paducah, Kentucky; John Myrick, 27, Paducah; Jeremy Cornwell, 28, Paducah; Michael Low, 45, Benton, Kentucky; Alfredo Olmedo, 39, Paducah; Harry Spencer, 62 years old, Paducah.
Detectives say they began the operation on Wednesday by posting an ad on a well-known website. The investigators immediately began receiving phone calls from men asking for sex in exchange for money. An undercover female detective spoke with the men and made arrangements to meet them at a Paducah hotel.
During the investigation, detectives say the men made agreements to pay the female detective in exchange for sexual acts. The males were taken into custody by other detectives and deputies and then taken to the McCracken County Regional Jail.
As of Friday, Sept. 28, detectives continued their investigation and arrested a Louisville man around 2 p.m. Officers say Brandon Bartley, 36, was at a hotel in McCracken County after a female undercover agent spoke with him several times over the phone.
The sheriff's department says Bartley had responded to their ad and engaged in conversations of a sexual nature with the detective. They say he agreed to pay the detective money for sexual acts and was taken into custody without incident. Officers say Bartley had traveled from Louisville on Friday to meet the woman for what he expected to be sexual acts.
The operation was part of a broader initiative to reduce drug and sex crimes, which is a priority for Sheriff Jon Hayden. It is widely known that a large majority of crimes are committed in relation to drug abuse.
Hayden says there has been an increased awareness and targeting of sex trafficking across the nation. Recently there have been large scale human and sex trafficking investigations which seem to indicate it is on the rise in the country as a whole and a growing problem for our communities and specifically vulnerable teen females.
The majority of the men arrested were from the Paducah area or staying in Paducah hotels.
The McCracken County Sheriff’s Department conducted a similar investigation in July of 2012 that netted fifteen arrests in regards to prostitution.
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