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AUSTINTOWN -- A weeklong, statewide sex crime sting that wrapped up Saturday included six men arrested in Austintown. They were among 160 Ohio men, investigators said.
Details released Tuesday by police outlined the Friday arrest of Deshawn Evans, 26, of Westchester Apartments, who is accused of calling a phone number listed in an ad police placed online as part of the sting operation.
Evans is said to have had a sexually explicit conversation with the police officer's undercover profile, and made comments that indicated he wanted to engage in paid sexual activity.
The undercover officer told him they could meet at the Days Inn motel on Clarkins Drive in Austintown. When Evans arrived, he was arrested on charges of engaging in prostitution and possession of criminal tools. In this case, police said the "criminal tool" was his mobile phone used to engage with the undercover officer.
In all, Austintown police arrested six men that day under nearly identical circumstances, using either the Days Inn or the Springwood Apartments on North Kimberly Drive as meeting points.
Jackie Counat, an analyst at the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force, said that while minors usually are the task force's focus, the statewide operation was focused on human trafficking in general. She said many of the prostitutes identified during the operation "were victims of human trafficking.
"Many of these women in this field aren't even collecting the money involved in the transaction," she said, "and we found a few solicitors that we tried to give some recovery help to if they needed or wanted it."
"Operation Buyer's Remorse," as the sting was code named, ran from Sept. 25 through Saturday across Ohio, including Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Youngstown, Marietta and Portsmouth.
Attorney General David Yost on Monday announced the completion of the operation, which he said was intended to arrest those attempting to buy sex and to identify victims of human trafficking.
Law enforcement officers interviewed 104 survivors of human trafficking, who were provided services from health care and social service organizations.
The Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force consists of the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office; BCI; Ohio Investigative Unit; Compass Rape Crisis and Counseling Center; and the Youngstown, East Palestine, Austintown, Salem, Warren, Cortland and Beaver Township police departments.
Also arrested in Austintown were Michael Bender, 41, of Lodwick Drive in Warren; Brian Spade, 42, of Chalmers Avenue in Youngstown; Jonathon Waguespack, 21, of Youngstown-Pittsburgh Road in Poland; Christopher Suarez, 56, of Erie, Pennsylvania; and Cornelius Echols, 35, of Effingham, South Carolina.
INCORRECT NAME LISTED
Another man with a similar name incorrectly was released by investigators in place of Waguespack when the story was first reported in Tuesday's newspaper. Maj. Jeff Allen of the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office said someone within the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office pulled information for the wrong person from a state law enforcement database, and provided that inaccurate information to the Ohio Attorney General's Office, which ultimately was used in a news release.
Allen said Tuesday that the man erroneously listed has a similar name but different age and residence location.
Court appearances are being scheduled for the 160 men charged. The six men nabbed in Austintown are due in Mahoning County Court 4 in Austintown on Oct. 11 for arraignment on the first-degree misdemeanor charges.
Other local men were arrested by other departments, including Jordan Perez, 35, of Masury; Travis Swidzinski, 37, of Youngstown, and Ralph Fabrizio, 48, of Hubbard.
Reporter Ed Runyan contributed to this story.