Vice cops: Norfolk a hotbed for Web prostitution

NORFOLK

Samantha sits on a hotel bed with her hands cuffed.

The Orlando, Fla., woman tells undercover police she's been a prostitute for only a few months. The cops aren't buying it.

Norfolk is a hotbed of Internet-arranged prostitution on the East Coast, vice investigators say. They've made roughly 240 arrests this year on charges of prostituting, pimping and soliciting. Seven officers in the department's Vice and Narcotics Division are deployed solely to the effort. The aim? Ultimately, to catch the men orchestrating the networks.

"There's violence wrapped up in it," Investigator Wendy Hlebinsky said of the trafficking. Norfolk "is up there with Boston; New York; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore and New Jersey."

Police agreed to let The Virginian-Pilot shadow vice detectives for 16 hours during two undercover operations at hotels in the city's Military Highway corridor this month. They asked that the newspaper not publish the hotels' names because the businesses cooperate by letting police work undercover.

The Pilot generally does not identify individuals cited for prostitution misdemeanors.

Stings have netted well-heeled professionals, teachers, ministers and military officers. A married attorney from a large Hampton Roads law firm was among those arrested in one of the stings witnessed by The Pilot.

Craigslist.org had been one of the most popular sites for prostitutes to use until the company shut down its adult personals section in September. Now Backpage.com and others fill the void.

Hookers come from all over to work the region. A potential client calls a phone number listed in an ad, shows up at an arranged meeting place and negotiates a price and services.

According to search warrant affidavits, police this fall arrested a 39-year-old prostitute from Hong Kong being driven by a man who told them he was paid $130 a day by an agency in New York.

In another case, two hookers told Norfolk police that their pimp, who drove them state to state, threatened to kill them and their families and said he would beat them if they didn't earn $600 a day each, according to court records.

It's the task of the select vice detectives to bring this to a stop. Officers must apply to join the unit, where supervisors determine whether those accepted will be assigned to the drugs or prostitution divisions. Once there, they must become accustomed to carrying out stings at least once a week, usually more often. They must be able to blend into the same roles of those they're hoping to arrest.

In the sting that led to the woman from Florida, an undercover male officer printed ads from Backpage.com for female escorts in Norfolk.

"I saw your posting online and was wondering if you had any openings," he says on the phone, sitting in a grocery store parking lot in a car that once belonged to a drug dealer.

He sets up a 9 p.m. meeting at a hotel where police already had arrested a prostitute that evening. She tells him to walk up to the balcony.

"Wow, you look beautiful," he says as he walks into her room. Her cell phone rings. "You're a busy woman!"

After they agree to trade a sex act for cash, the officer goes to the bathroom. Seconds later, there's a knock on the hotel room door. He rushes out, asks if she was expecting someone and opens the door. Officers come in and arrest her.

They begin questioning Samantha. She gives police permission to search her room, phone and computer.

She says she has an associate's degree in communications marketing and once worked at a bank.

"Next question: Are you alone?" asks Investigator Matt Tolson, a towering vice detective.

"Yes."

"Why Norfolk?" Hlebinsky presses.

"It seemed like a good spot to come to."

"Who do you send your money to?"

"I don't."

In fact, she says, she has just a few hundred dollars on her and had spent several days in Norfolk after driving from Connecticut.

Hlebinsky is annoyed: "Every time you answer a question with 'Honestly,' you lie," she says. "You're going to jail tonight."

Samantha, whose online ad says she is 23, is actually Jennifer Lynn Wheeler, 25, from Orlando. When her phone rings, Hlebinsky answers, hoping it's a pimp.

Hlebinsky's voice instantly shifts from aggressive to flirty. "Come on over to 236 and come up to the room," she says, then hangs up and announces: "A john is on his way up to the room. We're going to charge him with visiting a bawdy place."

Wheeler is taken into the bathroom and sits on the toilet in handcuffs while a detective holds a glass of water for her to drink.

A man knocks on the hotel room door.

"Come on in, partner. Take your hands out of your pockets."

He has $250 in cash in an envelope. He says it's a gift for his housekeeper. A detective glares at him: "You and I both know this isn't for your housekeeper."

Police write him a summons for the misdemeanor; his court date is in January. He takes it and drives off.

With Wheeler on her way to the Police Operations Center, Tolson ponders the case in the frigid night air on the hotel balcony.

"I really don't believe that she's only been doing this since August," he says.

A yellow Lab named Duke sniffs her rental car and gives police probable cause for a search. In one bag is $9,830 in cash. Four cell phones in another bag are ringing.

Wheeler is on probation for a prostitution charge in Maryland.

Police suspect she's part of a larger ring because pimps usually collect cash at the hotel and don't let their prostitutes keep that much cash on hand.

Wheeler is charged with conspiracy to commit a felony, solicitation for prostitution and maintaining a bawdy place.

"After you go through this case, do not come back to Norfolk to prostitute," Hlebinsky tells her.

In another operation two nights earlier, a female patrol officer dresses like a hooker and waits in a hotel room.

Hlebinsky posts an ad under the escorts section of Backpage.com's Norfolk site, with a photo of a blond woman in a negligee, a brief introduction and a phone number.

She purposefully misspells words.

"I'll let you unwrap a special present just for you," she writes. "As me about my Military Specials!"

Eleven officers work on this operation. The officer playing hooker has done it three times; during one operation, she orchestrated eight arrests at a hotel.

"I usually do $100. But I'll cut you a break. How about $90," she tells a customer. After giving her room number to a potential customer, she messes the bed covers and checks her outfit in the mirror: Tight black dress, crucifix around her neck, black boots. Underwear is strewn on a chair and high heels are on the floor. A can of Budweiser, a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of lubricant sit on tables.

One man says he only wants a back massage and asks if she's a cop.

She tells him: "You're freaking me out. I think you're a cop."

Four men come to the room without making a deal and leave, having little idea how close they are to officers in bulletproof vests waiting clandestinely.

Police wonder if they are giving away their ruse.

About 12:30 a.m. a young man comes up and hands over $60 for a sex act.

The 23-year-old sailor is arrested on a misdemeanor charge of solicitation for prostitution.

It doesn't matter what story he gives. There's been audio and video surveillance.

Tolson, with a trace of condescension, tells him, "I already know what was said. I'm just giving you a chance to be an honest man."

Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-3893, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com