Police target prostitution at airport hotels

Police are targeting prostitutes and pimps who operate out of hotels near the Philadelphia International Airport, saying the activity is leading to robberies and other crimes.

Police on Thursday announced the arrests of six alleged prostitutes and three men who worked with them. All are charged with prostitution and criminal solicitation.

The arrests were all made in the same hotel, which police declined to name, but Philadelphia Capt. Daniel MacDonald said several other airport hotels are experiencing similar problems.

Posing as johns, police officers called phone numbers advertising escort services on Craigslist and other websites and met up with the alleged prostitutes. Police are looking at ways to target johns as the investigation continues, and they will also be conducting stings in other areas of the city.

"The message for these people is that you never know where we're going to be," said Philadelphia Lt. Charles Green, commander of the Vice Squad.

A quick glance on Craigslist and other sites reveals no shortage of advertisements which seem to be escort services, offering half-hour or hourlong blocks of time for $50-$150. On one given day, police counted 38 different women advertising escort services near the airport on three different websites, MacDonald said.

In recent months, there have been robberies and even a fatal shooting connected to the prostitution activity at the hotels, Green said. And since most prostitution-related robberies are not reported, police said it's safe to assume it's happening more than they can prove.

In one recent incident, a woman got a client into what Green called a "compromising position," then knocked on the door to signal for her male companion to enter. The two then robbed the john at knifepoint.

"Some of these johns become easy marks for robberies," Green said.

According to police, a prostitute and her boyfriend deemed 26-year-old Kalif Lewis such a mark in December, when Lewis met with the woman at the Residence Inn at Marriott on Island Avenue.

Lewis, of North Philadelphia, met the woman at the hotel and the two spent some time there together, police said. When Lewis left, he realized he was missing some money, and returned with a gun. The woman's boyfriend, 28-year-old Tyre West, got in the middle and ended up dead, shot in the abdomen. Lewis was later arrested.

"We hear a lot that prostitution is a victimless crime," Green said, "But we've got people getting killed."

The hotels are working with police on preventing the prostitution rings from operating, and police are educating them on how to spot suspicious activity. One warning sign, MacDonald said, is when someone who has a local address books a hotel room for seven or eight days.

"These hotels don't want this going on," he said. "They've got hotel guests being held hostage by this."

Those arrested in the recent sting were:

Jennifer Henderson, 28, of Bridgeton, N.J.

Laura Holland, 43, of South Philadelphia

Christine Hunter, 21, of Drexel Hill

Edith Massie, 44, of Germantown

Charisa Norman, 25, of North Philadelphia

Clarence Norris, 39, of West Philadelphia

Sherri Perkins, 23, of Drexel Hill

Christopher Powell, 28, of Drexel Hill

Joseph Stalfire, 67, of Plymouth Meeting