Weld County Deputies worked with the Colorado State Patrol and Homeland Security to set up a child prostitution sting in Weld County. The officers posted an ad on backpage.com acting as a mother listing her 11 and 14-year-old daughters for prostitution. Within 24 hours, the officers received text messages from 2 different men, each expressing their interest in having sex with the fictitious girls. The officers arranged the suspects to meet them in a Longmont motel parking lot, where they were going to give them a motel room key. Both suspects were spooked by the parking lot meeting and attempted to flee, one in his car and one on foot, but both were apprehended. About a week later, three more men fell prey to the sting and were arrested at a Greeley motel.
Sting: Soliciting Child Prostitution in Greeley
C.R.S 18-7-402 – Soliciting for Child Prostitution is defined by Colorado law as:
(a) Solicits another for the purpose of prostitution of a child or by a child; or
(b) Arranges or offers to arrange a meeting of persons for the purpose of prostitution of a child or by a child; or
(c) Directs another to a place knowing such direction is for the purpose of prostitution of a child or by a child.
In the case above, the men contacted the ‘mom’ (law enforcement agents) to express their interest in having sex with her underage daughters. They were asking the ‘mom’ to arrange a meeting with the girls, in order to engage in an illicit act with them.
Sometimes, sting operations will seek to arrest men and women from another angle.
If this had been a real ad, where a mother was truly offering her daughters for prostitution, the mom would be charged with Child Prostituting as well. She would have helped arrange the meeting in order to prostitute her daughters. Sometimes, sting operations will seek to arrest men and women from another angle, where law enforcement agents are pretending to be interested in engaging in sex with a child, in order to catch the adult offering the child for prostitution. In these cases, the adult can also be charged with Procurement of a Child and Pandering of a Child, both are a class 3 felony.
Soliciting for Child Prostitution is a class 3 felony in Greeley, Windsor, and Evans. This is punishable with 4 to 12 years imprisonment in the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) and up to $750,000 in fines. This crime is also considered a sex offense, which requires sex offender registration and intensive sex offender treatment.
If you or someone you love has been arrested for Soliciting a Child Prostitute in Weld, Morgan, or Logan County, be smart, exercise your right to remain silent, and contact the experienced and professional criminal defense attorneys from the O’Malley Law Office at (970) 616-6009 immediately for a free consultation. We can even arrange an attorney visit to the Weld County Jail. Together, we can protect your future.
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