Man Charged With Soliciting Minor (UPDATE)
Aug 7, 2009 8:41 - 3 Comments
[UPDATE: It turns out the man in question is not from Rockville. The original police report gave as his address the location of the MCFRS executive offices. Thank you to Nathan Carrick for spotting it.]The Montgomery County police reported last night that, as a part of the department’s ongoing effort to combat human trafficking, a >Rockville man was arrested for alleged solicitation of a minor for sexual purposes. From the report:
During the course of the investigation an internet advertisement was posted for prostitution on July 15, 2009, by a female police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. On July 17 an e-mailed response was received from an adult male interested in arranging a meeting with the believed-to-be 16-year-old girl. A meeting was arranged for the morning of July 20 at the Holbrook Shopping Center located at 437 S. Frederick Avenue in Gaithersburg. The suspect acknowledged that he knew the ad was for a 16-year-old and that he agreed to pay for sexual services received from her. When the suspect arrived at the location, vice and Intelligence officers took him into custody and charged him with soliciting a minor for sex.
The report lists the man as living in Rockville and working for the Montgomery County Department of Fire and Rescue Services. The full report is here.
On a personal note, human trafficking is an issue that I feel very deeply about. It is an uncomfortable issue but a significant problem across the globe and here at home. There are more slaves now than at any time in human history. Many are children and women in impoverished nations. But there are also reports of human trafficking in Montgomery County. The Not For Sale Campaign is a good place to start for more information. Slavery Map is an interactive map of reported incidents of trafficking.
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this instance of soliciting sex with a minor isn’t what i think of as human trafficking. are they rebranding crimes to a higher category so that greater penalties can be imposed? do we actually know what was going on in this case?
When I lived in Gaithersburg, near West Deer Park Drive, there were several instances where brothels and houses of prostitution were raided/arrested in the neighborhood. It was determined that women were being shuttled up and down the east coast for these prostitution rings, which were operated by gangs like MS-13. Those are probably the most prevalent cases of human trafficking in the county.
I was reading about this recently with many other people caught in the area. It caught my interest as a legal matter in that TECHNICALLY the age of consent in the state of Maryland is 16. However, the special law this man is charge under is § 3-324. Sexual solicitation of minor. This law makes it illegal to solicit a person under 18 for purposes of violating EITHER statutory rape laws (if they are 15 and under), or prostitution. While the “bait” in this case is technically over the age of consent, they are technically soliciting a prostitute. The fact that this is prostitution is what makes it illegal under this law.