massages to some people],” Kulesa says. “They denied The basics, from a Lonoke County sheriff’s news release, the prostitution charges, but here they were on the Internet are simple enough. Deputies served a search warrant at 105 advertising with pictures that were pretty provocative. It Ridgecrest Square in the Greystone subdivision. Arrested wasn’t someone standing in a white smock with a towel there were 33-year-old A.E. Samontry and 40-year-old over their arm like a professional masseuse. It was a girl Pornpiemon Phouangmany, U.S. citizens of Laotian descent. lying on the bed with a bikini bottom on. But I guess that A 46-year-old North Little Rock man, Jerry Richard, was will be up to a judge to decide.” arrested for patronizing a prostitute. The investigation began Blakely said both Samontry and Phouangmany were because of complaints from neighbors about the amount of good tenants who kept the place clean and always paid traffic in the neighborhood. their rent on time. They always paid in checks, he says, The suspects were quickly released on bond. The offenses other than a couple of times, when they paid their entire are misdemeanors, with relatively minor penalties. monthly rent in $20 bills, which he found a little odd. He Further reporting raised interesting angles in the case. says, as do others in the neighborhood, that he hardly ever For one, the man charged with solicitation does not fit the saw the women living at the house next door. typical john-prostitute profile. He’s the former husband of Jolene Payne lives across the street from 105 Ridgecrest. one of the women. She was the most vigilant of the neighbors in trying to get The setting has media appeal. Greystone is a quiet slice of something done about the incessant traffic. She continually suburbia on Cabot’s northwest side, off Highway 5. It’s full called the police, sheriff’s office and whoever else would of new brick homes and borders a country club with a lush listen, until something was done. golf course. Lawns are manicured, driveways are swept and “I called everybody and their brother. I literally did,” little bicycles with pink tassels hanging from the handlebars Payne says. “We called the cops for them blocking our lie on their sides in front yards along the street. It is a far driveway. Every time the police showed up we told them, cry from the seamy “strolls” of big cities where prostitutes ‘There’s a John over there right now. Go do something about gather. (Think the gritty portions of Roosevelt Road in Little it.’ They kept telling us they couldn’t do anything, that we Rock, a historic hotspot for the flesh trade.) didn’t have any proof. I mean, they pay their rent “I’ve been with the sheriff’s office for 16 years in $20 bills. How is that not suspicious? How is and this is the first prostitution case that I’ve worked, that not proof?” I guess you could say,” says Lt. Jim Kulesa with the sheriff’s office. “It was a surprise and the media and But, of course, a ready supply of cash money isn’t public response to it has been, well, I guess everybody proof of prostitution. Law enforcement officials say thought it was kind of funny. It’s not something you prostitution is a difficult crime to enforce precisely see every day.” because it’s so hard to prove, without testimony The women who were arrested have said they from, for example, undercover officers. were running a massage business out of their home. “Knowing what’s going on and proving it are They do not appear on the state list of licensed mastwo different things,” Kulesa says. “It’s hard because sage therapists. you’re dealing with an entrapment issue. In other The women have entered not guilty pleas. A sign words, the girl has to be the one to bring up the that once sat on the side of Highway 5 advertising the idea of sex for money. If you go in there and you the arrested: From left, Jerry Richard, Pompiemon Phouangmany business has been taken down. Advertisements were basically tell her, ‘I’ll give you money for sex,’ then and A.E. Samontry. also placed on the site backpage.com, an Internet that’s entrapment.” site like Craigslist where classifieds and personal ads The Internet has made it easier and more discreet can be placed, but the Cabot ads are no longer there. There episode of prostitution rather than, say, rekindling of an to procure sex for money at private locations. The advertisremain, however, many other suggestive ads from women in old flame? ing, however, also makes it easier to track and find potential Reggie Koch, a Little Rock attorney who represents prostitutes. “Advertising is helpful,” says Lt. Terry Hastings Arkansas offering massage and other intimate services. Kevin Blakely lived next door and rented the house Richard, says the two are still, as far as he knows, in a rela- of the Little Rock Police Department, “for obvious reasons.” to the two women for two years. He said it’s possible the tionship and were not having sex at the time of the arrest. But it’s still not cut-and-dried. “We all pay for sex,” Koch says jokingly. “I mean, we women could have been running a legitimate business, but “If someone says on a website ‘anything goes,’ then you all pay for sex, right? He pays her every month because he have to determine what ‘anything’ means,” Hastings says. the circumstantial evidence suggested otherwise. “Until somebody can prove that they were doing some- still owes her from their divorce. It’s part of their agreement. “If it’s involving sex, just because you say that on a website thing illegal it’s just hearsay,” Blakely says. “As we started They have always had, other than when they were pissed doesn’t mean that you’re going to get arrested. There would to really pay attention, because of the frequency of the cars, off at each other, a relationship.” have to be an offer.” Kulesa insists the evidence is there. your mind starts to wonder if it’s drugs or what it could be. The LRPD vice squad stays busy on old-fashioned street “We have some evidence to show that it wasn’t just [two prostitution. Since January of 2009, the LRPD has made But after three or four months of watching them you’re pretty sure what’s going on, because it’s always one male people getting back together],” Kulesa says. “Basically there 268 prostitution arrests, none Internet-related. But Hastings in the vehicle and he’s always there for 45 minutes or an was some information that he was actually paying. I can’t says the Internet is still a useful tool for investigators. hour. So after awhile you think about it and you only come go into detail on that because it’s still a pending case, but “We do stings quite often where we go out and arrest to the one conclusion. I think the police feel they have we have enough to show there was a financial arrangement prostitutes where we use undercover officers for that,” he made prior.” enough evidence.” says. “In most cases, that’s how it gets done. The Internet “I assume they have some information somewhere about stuff is useful information, but other than that, it’s just getting The Lonoke County case wasn’t like most prostitution cases in which an officer goes undercover and waits something,” Koch says, “but my guy certainly wasn’t hiring out there on the street, figuring out where the prostitutes for an offer to be made. The search warrant was based on her as a prostitute. I don’t know what’s going to happen with are and going to arrest them. We use the Internet to track it conversations with two men who had admitted to paying the girls, but my guy, that’s his ex-wife and I think they’re but we won’t reveal to you how we do that.” for sex, but weren’t arrested themselves. Kulesa says he going to have trouble. If the district court finds him guilty The catalyst for most prostitution investigations is we’ll certainly go to a jury trial and I don’t think there’s 12 complaints. In 2007, North Little Rock Police made five doesn’t know why. Little Rock attorney Dan Hancock is representing both people in Arkansas that will find him guilty of this unless arrests related to online prostitution offers, all after receivwomen in the case. He says he doesn’t know why the men they get something incredibly unforeseen.” ing complaints. According to an NLRPD spokesman, in the Lt. Kulesa says there was more to the case than just past two years no Internet-related arrests have been made weren’t arrested either. “It seems a little odd that they’re arresting my clients as statements from the two unidentified johns. He couldn’t because of a lack of complaints. In April of this year, a opposed to people who have admitted to paying someone go into detail because the case is awaiting trial, but said White County woman was arrested after sheriff’s deputies the ads on backpage.com weren’t your typical therapeutic received numerous complaints about an ad she placed on for sex, which is illegal,” Hancock says. Then there’s the matter of Richard’s former marriage massage ads. Craigslist. “Yeah, it’s a possibility [they were actually giving to Samontry. How did deputies conclude that this was an Continued on page 12
“We all pay for sex. I mean, we all pay for sex, right? He pays her every month because he still owes her from their divorce. It’s part of their agreement. They have always had, other than when they were pissed off at each other, a relationship.”
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