SBSD PIO Kelly Hoover
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — The adage “if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is” is more on point than the series of online advertisements for female companionship posted by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Special Investigations Bureau during the first week of July.
It was then, according to SBSD Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, that detectives posted online ads at www.backpage.com, a website “known for online prostitution-related” materials.
The nature of the material posted by the cops “listed the availability of a female willing to engage in sexual acts in exchange for money,” and was apparently enticing enough to attract considerable illicit male attention.
When respondents to the ad called the listed phone number, “a female undercover detective negotiated with the inquiring person” for specific sexual acts in exchange for specific amounts of money and then provided callers with her hotel and room location.
Unsuspecting men then arrived at the designated time and place and found themselves not in the company of a compliant and willing female, but suddenly placed in handcuffs and arrested for “solicitation of prostitution.”
While Hoover reported to the media that “all subjects arrested were cooperative” during the process of their arrests on July 7th and 8th, she did provide the identities of all those transported to Santa Barbara County Jail for booking on a charge of solicitation of prostitution:
59-year-old Nho Nguyen of Santa Barbara
66-year-old Edward Farley of Santa Barbara
51-year-old Allen Obiols of Santa Barbara
20-year-old Vatche Agob of Isla Vista
28-year-old Jesus Saldana of Santa Barbara
35-year-old Justin Litterelle of Philadelphia
31-year-old Ger Hang of Lompoc
44-year-old Laszlo Nagy-Berta of Ventura
43-year-old Eric Fowler of Fresno
20-year-old Isaac Kielmanowicz of Santa Barbara
21-year-old Keisuke Hata of Goleta
34-year-old Ramon Chavez-Antolino of Santa Barbara
48-year-old Christopher Blaul of Santa Barbara
57-year-old Peter Gaum of Santa Barbara
20-year-old Matthew Wu of Santa Barbara
23-year-old Jose Torres of Goleta
56-year-old Antonio Perez-Collado of Goleta
44-year-old Juan Pimentel of Goleta
40-year-old Juan Zepeda-Corona of Solvang
23-year-old Jeremiah Frazier of Santa Barbara
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara Independent
