| For Immediate Release Case # 13WM06458 August 8, 2013 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
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MAN CONVICTED AND SENTENCED FOR AGREEING TO ENGAGE IN COMMERCIAL SEX WITH WOMAN
WESTMINSTER – A man was convicted and sentenced today for agreeing to pay for sex acts after approaching a woman in Anaheim. Jon Michael Hill, 59, Newport Beach, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of agreeing to engage in prostitution. He was sentenced to three years of informal probation, 45 days in jail, and must submit DNA and attend AIDS testing and education.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. on June 4, 2013, Hill was seen circling around a known prostitution area on Beach Boulevard and Rome Avenue in Anaheim by an Orange County Sherriff’s Department (OCSD) deputy. Hill pulled to the side of the road and made contact with a woman, whom he believed to be a prostitute. After a brief conversation with the woman, the defendant drove away without her. Hill then pulled into a parking lot and made contact with a different woman, whom he also believed to be a prostitute. The woman got into Hill’s vehicle and the defendant drove to a motel to engage in commercial sex with the female. OCSD followed the defendant to the motel and arrested the defendant after discovering Hill was picking up the woman for commercial sex.
The area of Beach Boulevard and Rome Avenue is known to law enforcement to be a high-prostitution area and is known to frequently be used by individuals who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers.
This case was prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney’s Human Exploitation And Trafficking (HEAT) Unit, which targets perpetrators who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers. Commercial sex trafficking is the second most lucrative criminal enterprise behind narcotics trafficking. Often the perpetrators are gang members and/or career criminals.
The HEAT Unit also targets defendants who create a demand for prostitution by soliciting and purchasing sex, which increases the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children. The HEAT Unit uses a tactical plan called PERP: Prosecution of human trafficking perpetrators and sex purchasers; Education for law enforcement to properly handle human trafficking and pandering cases; Resources to raise public awareness and provide assistance to the victims; and Publicity to inform the community about the problem and notify human traffickers and sex purchasers that this crime cannot be perpetrated without suffering severe consequences.
The OCDA announced in April 2013 that he will publicize the names of defendants convicted of sexually exploiting women or children by soliciting sex acts as part of the campaign to reduce the demand for human exploitation and trafficking.