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Brooksville Police Arrest 32 Men In Prostitution Sting

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By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: September 17, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Thirty-two men looking for a good time found themselves on the wrong side of the law last week.

For six days, Brooksville police cracked down on the apparently thriving sex trade in the city through a series of undercover operations. Using a female officer as the bait, police were after the "johns" funding prostitution in Brooksville.

They came from as far away as Lecanto and New Port Richey; some were married with kids, others single, their ages ranging from 25 to 79.

Early into the operation, police had to recruit extra officers to keep pace with the arrests. Folks were on their way to jail within the first hour of starting the 6 a.m. shift.

Truck drivers on their delivery routes made quick stops to pay for sex. In full view of the officers making arrests, johns would pull aside the officer posing as a prostitute and tell her to come back in a few minutes.

A sex offender wearing an ankle monitor, William Lambrix, was among those arrested. Another suspect, Aaron Clower, sped out of the parking lot when he realized it was a setup and nearly ran over the decoy prostitute, authorities say.

Police made double the arrests of a similar operation held last year, but that's not really a cause to celebrate. A high return means there's a real problem in the city, said Police Chief George Turner.

Brooksville has seen a spike in violent crime this year with a number of shootings and two murders. Violent crime feeds off of prostitution and drugs, Turner said.

"It's all intertwined," he said.

Police based their target areas on citizen complaints. The operations were held on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from Main Street to Emerson Road and behind the BP station at Ponce De Leon Boulevard and W. Jefferson Street.

Even as officers were making arrests in the prostitution sting, undercover officers were making drug buys as well. Thirteen people are wanted in that investigation, including a 13-year-old boy. As of Tuesday afternoon, three of those people had been arrested.

Turner pledged Tuesday to continue similar crackdowns in the near future, some in cooperation with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.

This was Officer Krystal Nix's second time to play the role of prostitute. In a brief interview Friday, Nix said it's an interesting job that requires strong improvisation skills.

It's easiest to just remember that these are criminals like all the others she arrests on a daily basis, Nix said.

Well, almost.

"It takes an interesting person to pick up a stranger and ask for sex," she said.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

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