Yes they can arrest you (and convict you as well)
Hey guys,
Long time lurker, first time poster. I found the site while researching a pimping case I did, and have followed your conversations since.
You should all look at Penal Code Section 653. 22, generally known as loitering with the intent to commit an act of prostitution. This became law about a decade ago, and I've never defended one of these cases, but it, along with what is known as "Map Conditions" (conditions of probation wherein the judge restricts people convicted of prostitution offenses from walking the streets in certain areas), have largely resulted in the end of streetwalking prostitution that I see you all so often bemoan here.
Usually, 653. 22 is used against prostitutes who lean into cars, flag down motorists, hang out in certain areas, get in and out of cars, all this while dressing provocatively, etc. However, a section does exist which says:
"(4) Circles an area in a motor vehicle and repeatedly beckons to, contacts, or attempts to contact or stop pedestrians or other motorists, indicative of soliciting for prostitution. "
In other words, a cop can say "I saw this person driving around the block time after time, looking and engaging at lone female pedestians, stopping to talk to them, having them get into the car, driving around and then dropping them off, or allowing one to get into his car and then drive to a secluded spot. I formed the opinion that he was attempting to procure a streetwalking prostitute for purposes of engaging in an act of prostitution. "
The evidence against you would be the cops rendition of your actions, along with his opinion of what you were trying to do. As ridiculous as that opinion testimony sounds, it is actually allowed, and is often quite powerful among unquestioning jurors (I'm sure that some of you have been jurors before in a case where a cop gave similar testimony. For instance the opining that person possessed drugs for purposes of sales, or an opinion about a person's gang membership). In this case, they would opine that you are a john, and you could very well be screwed in such a situation.
The punishment for loitering with intent is the exact same as for prostitution, which begins to tell you why street prostitution has been largely decimated in Southern California.
An aside. It is not against the law to pick up a girl so you can watch her do a show for you. If she gets in to your car, she is most certainly not a cop. Do not ever talk about any deeds that would be illegal if done for money with someone outside your car, as you will be nailed.
That being said, based on the amount of times I've had clients tell me that the cops lied in prostitution cases, I have to imagine that any conversation with a cop where you roll up on them could result in a) a lie about what you said, followed by charges, or b) the truth about what you said, along with charges for loitering with the intent to do an act of prostitution.
So, be careful out there. I don't need any new cases, please.
[QUOTE=Speck]Yes.
Technically, they can arrest you and hold you for 72 hours without charging you. You driving around a known prostitution area and talking to known prostitutes is enough for them to arrest you, but may not be enough for the prosecutor to charge you. So LE can arrest you and hold you (and impound your car. This is the very most important reason that you see advice cautioning against picking up girls on the main street.
But normally they will not arrest you. Usually they will just cite you or even just warn you if you don't admit to anything.
It's never a good idea to do things that will attract LE attention. [/QUOTE]
Can LAPD Shut down the Fig track
Gentlemen. The question has been posed whether LAPD has the ability to shut down the Fig track. As a defense lawyer, I think that they do. That being said, any LAPD officer talking to you honestly will allow that when they shut down Fig, the people will do one of two things: quit the trade, or go elsewhere.
Let's be realistic, there are not going to be many who will quit the trade. The penalties are not getting that much higher (imagine if they made it 25 to life to engage in an act of prostitution. That would cut the trade down to size, but even that wouldn't end it, as we can see in Iran, where it is similarly punishible and still in existence).
Since the punishment is the same, the track will migrate elsewhere, or to other types of venues. We've already seen that as evidenced by the fact that MAP conditions and Penal Code Section 653. 22 have dramatically cut down the number of street walkers (something I wrote about in a previous post, and that you all seem to bemoan here on a regular basis). Less anecdotally, a few years ago I ran into a Judge I knew from the Hollywood courthouse that I had an interesting trial with years earlier. I asked him how busy Hollywood had been, his comment was that it was very slow, as they had so many fewer prostitution cases ever since 653. 22 had come into effect.
We all know that the business went elsewhere, though. I'm no historian, nor a user, so I don't know if LBB used to be as busy as it is now. Craigslist has taken up quite a bit of the slack, as have other sites. People here write of Western, and places of the sort. In my work, I get cases involving prostitutes who ply their trade in all sorts of unexpected places not even mentioned on this site. In other words, people haven't stopped doing it, they only do it smarter. In this case, smarter means less visibly. Since the police can pretty much pop you at will for doing it on the street, the only defense against that is either lax enforcement or doing it another way. As long as the police can beef up their numbers so effortlessly (face it, prostitution busts are shooting fish in a barrell), they'll do it. It's a lot easier than taking down some gang members who could shoot back at you.
So, the key is to continue to get the customer to the business person plying their trade. For this, you guys provide an invaluable service, unfortunately, you also give information to people who misuse this information. The result is like squeezing a balloon, squeeze it in one place, it bulges out somewhere else, until you direct your resources there, leaving untouched the area you were just squeezing. For your purposes, the one happy thing is that there will never be enough police to squeeze all areas at once.
I recently did a trial involving a sting on Figueroa (at the corner of 48th & Fig, FYI). It is so intensive on the part of the police. They had 6 or 7 girls, and a huge number of backup officers. They spent nearly 18 hours on the operation, but on the other hand they also netted over 30-40 busts of varying types (they even got a couple of pimps). So, it's clear that they are not going to hold their fire, on the other hand, from your perspective, you can feel somewhat safe in the fact that they will only run these sting operations in areas like Fig, where there are lots of buyers, and not necessarily lots of sellers. In the meantime, you can probably announce with impunity the odd ball locations you are finding girls and it will not be worthwhile for them to run stings there for a long time, because the bulk of the potential johns will not know about this place until it becomes REALLY well known.
So, keep talking, keep searching, and good luck. I wish you all the best of luck because, regardless of how you all do, there will certainly be plenty of work for me all the time.
