Police Beat: Prostitution sting catches Tacoma city employee

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police.

March 14: The prostitution sting snared 12 people, including a Tacoma city employee.

Police ran the operation in the city’s south end.

An undercover officer struck a streetwalker pose in the 9200 block of Pacific Avenue. About 5 p.m., a late-model SUV slowed and approached her. The driver rolled down his window.

“What’s up?” the driver asked.

“It’s cold outside,” the officer replied.

“Hop in,” the driver said.

The officer said she had work to do. The driver told her to hop in and warm up. The officer asked where they would go.

The man said he couldn’t discuss it – too many police around. The officer asked where. The man said he’d seen two patrol cars a couple of blocks away. Again, he told her to get in the car.

The officer said she had to finish her work. The man said they could finish it together and told her to get in the car. The officer asked what they would do.

The man said he had to verify she wasn’t a cop, and she should do the same for him.

“Are you a cop?” the officer asked.

“No – are you?” the man asked.

The officer asked if she looked like a cop. The man said no – but he had to make sure.

“You can touch me, I can touch you, and then we’ll know,” he said.

The man said he’d be back. The officer said she’d be there.

She walked away from the SUV and gave a pre-arranged signal. Officers, waiting nearby, swooped in and stopped the man.

The man was 49. He worked for the city of Tacoma. He carried a gun – a loaded Glock 19 with 16 rounds. He also had a Taser in the center console of the SUV.

He didn’t hide the weapons. Officers asked him if he’d ever been arrested for a prostitution offense. He said he hadn’t.

He asked for leniency. He said officers had the discretion to let him go. He said he’d learned his lesson. Officers said he’d be treated like anyone else.

Officers confiscated the weapons and cited the man for attempting to detect an undercover officer: a violation tied to the offense of soliciting prostitution. They handed him the misdemeanor citations and released him.

March 14: The boy was 15: a runaway, brimming with fury.

An officer working truancy duty for the Tacoma School District found the boy sleeping in a car with three other juveniles.

He’d been AWOL for four days.

The officer took the boy home to his mother, who lived in the 4000 block of East Spokane Street with her boyfriend.

The officer dropped the boy off and started writing a report when a dispatch call crackled over the radio, tied to the mother’s address. The boy was fighting with his mother.

Back at the door, the officer heard screaming inside. He knocked. Mom answered. The officer saw the 15-year-old in the kitchen and cuffed him.

Mom said the boy hit her. He didn’t want to get dressed for school.

The officer tried to guide the boy into the patrol car. The boy planted his feet.

“You have no idea how pissed off I’m getting,” the boy said.

The officer tried to take the boy down. It didn’t work at first. The boy swore that he wouldn’t go down. It took a second officer to subdue him. Officers asked if he was hurt. The boy swore and said no.

He swore in the patrol car all the way to Remann Hall, where he was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.

March 14: The old campaigner wore a top hat and a cape of purple velvet. He didn’t like being told to take his meds.

The campaigner was 61, a disabled veteran who served in the Navy. His record stretched back 30 years; it included multiple diagnoses of mental illness, trips to Western State Hospital and a trail of assaults. He lived in a group home for the mentally ill in the 400 block of North J Street.

Officers spoke to the manager of the home. She said she asked the man if he’d taken his medication. The man got mad and threw a cigarette at her, then a chair. The manager wasn’t hurt, but she wanted to press charges.

Officers said that would be difficult, given the man’s mental status. They spoke to him. He was smoking in a covered area outside, wearing his hat and cape. His hair spilled over his shoulders. Other residents gave way when officers approached.

The man said the staff at the home assaulted him with a stick. He rambled, spinning old tales of conspiracies and the Marines. Officers cuffed him and took him to a secure mental-health facility in Fife for further evaluation.

March 13: The attack came from nowhere, the girl said. A man rushed up to her in the street and pepper-sprayed her in the face.

The girl was 17. Officers found her in the 2300 block of South Grant Street, flushing her eyes in the sink. Neighbors at the home had let her in when they heard her screaming in pain outside.

She said she’d been visiting a friend nearby and stepped outside to walk off her stress. She saw a man walking the opposite way, and two other men approaching in dark clothing. She didn’t know any of them, she said.

The two dark-clad pursuers shouted at the walking man. They might have said, “John!” the young woman said.

One stranger rushed up to “John” and sprayed him in the face. The other rushed up to her without a word and squeezed off a pepper shot. The spray burned; the girl couldn’t see.

She said she wouldn’t recognize the men if she saw them again. She knew nothing more. She said she didn’t need medical aid.

Officers checked the surrounding area and found nothing. They took the teen home to her mother’s house.

Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486 sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com