Crime & Safety
Cops: These Prostitutes Advertised Online in Fairfield Co.
These prostitution arrests were made in Norwalk only because that's where the sting operation took place, but they advertised throughout Fairfield County, police said.
Norwalk police conducted a prostitution sting operation Thursday in which they arrested five women and a man (who was helping one of them) after police answered online ads.
The advertisements for prostitution services in the area were found in the "Fairfield County" sections of Craigs List and Backpage.com, police said.
When prostitutes showed up at a Norwalk hotel room under video surveilance, "they each had a conversation with an undercover officer about money for sex," said Lt. James Walsh, commander of the Norwalk Police special services division, which conducted the operation. After that, he said, each woman was arrested.
The arrestees were a woman and a man from Stratford -- the man came with her and showed up first, apparently to check out the customer and see if everything looked safe -- as well as women from Manhattan, Bridgeport, Providence, RI and Manhattan.
Police said they arrested these people in the operation (each was charged with prostitution, all were arrested without incident, each is scheduled to appear Dec. 24 in state Superior Court in Norwalk):
- Grisangie Camacho, 47, of Providence, RI — also charged with second-degree failure to appear in court. She arrived with Owens. Camacho previously had been arrested in a Norwalk undercover prostitution sting in 2007, Walsh said, and had failed to appear in court on that charge. Her bond initially was set at $1,500.
- Shannon Owens, 28, of Manhattan. She arrived with Camacho — her bond initially was set at $1,000.
- Valerie Ransom, 49, of Beer Street in Bridgeport — her bond initially was set at $1,000.
- Ashli Simpson, 22, of Pawling, NY — her bond was initially set at $1,000.
- Stephanie Norling, 33, of Columbus Avenue, Stratford — she worked with Allen. She was not held on a bond.
- Joseph Allen, 34, of Larkin Court, Stratford, also charged with promoting prostitution — he worked with Norling. Allen has a conviction for selling drugs, Walsh said. (His photograph wasn't provided due to a technical glitch.) He was not held on a bond.
Prices for an hour of each prostitutes time were each negotiated and were in the range of $200 an hour, Walsh sai. Camacho and Owens came with each other and agreed to both have sex with the man they thought was a customer for the price of $500, he said.
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