Four Grand Forks area men have swept up in a prostitution sting, setup by Grand Forks Police and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Matthew Thompson of Drayton and Emmanuel Jinor, Stephen Lagro and Josh McGoven all of Grand Forks face a Class B Misdemeanor charge of hiring an individual to engage in sexual activity.
The charge is punishable by a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail.
Police lured the men with an ad on the internet site, backpage. It's a site infamous for its use by those in the sex trade. But, what the men charged in this case didn't realize, the ad was placed by cops. Then, within a 4-hour period on Thursday afternoon, with the full cooperation of the Lakeview Inn & Suites on 32nd Avenue South in Grand Forks, an undercover, female officer waited for each of the men to offer money for sex.
Lieutenant Jim Remer of the Grand Forks Police says, each of the 4 men's meetings with the undercover officer inside a room at the hotel was secretly videotaped.
Lt. Jim Remer, GF Police: "We don't lead them on. That's something they bring up to the Police Officer and then an arrest is made after that happens… after there's money that's going to be used for some type of sexual activity."
Remer says it's not just an effort to stop prostitution, but the crimes associated with it as well.
Lt. Jim Remer: "There's other larger, bigger crimes that are affiliated with these types of activities, so it's something we wanted to investigate more fully and make some arrests if possible."
Remer says when prostitution happens in Grand Forks, it's sometimes local and sometimes it's brought in from Minneapolis.
It's hoped sting operations like this one will not only discourage anyone from trying to setup shop in Grand Forks, but also the men who allegedly support it.
Emmanuel Jinor
Stephen Lagro
Matthew Thompson
Josh McGoven
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