ST. GEORGE – On Friday night, police arrested four adults and one teenager in a prostitution sting. The arrests stemmed from information gathered by a joint-investigation involving the St. George Police and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. Four of those charged in the sting were adults; however, because one of the suspects, a 17-year-old woman, was transported across state lines for prostitution, Homeland Security Investigations was also involved in the operation.
Two St. George residents were among those arrested. Bart Higbee, 32, was charged with patronizing a prostitute, while 24-year-old Symon Capel was charged with sexual solicitation, according to a statement issued by the St. George Police Department.
In addition, police arrested Leroy Haley, 23, of Las Vegas for aggravated exploitation of prostitution, and a 20-year-old woman, Francis Uhrhan, also of Las Vegas, on charges of sexual solicitation. Bail for Haley and Uhrhan has been set at $100,000 each.
Ed. Note: A question arose from commenters as to whether of not Bart Higbee, one of the St. George men arrested in the vice sting, was a St. George Police officer. St. George News contacted the St. George Police Department and was told by Sgt. Sam Despain, SGPD public information officer, that Higbee is not a SGPD police officer “and never will be.”
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @mflynnSTGN
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.
If you really want to stamp out trafficking, rather than outlaw it why not legalize and regulate prostitution?
We need a new way to deal with this issue. Prostitution has been around for thousands of years and won’t stop. Escorts are members of our society and deserve our protection. The common idea that women are trapped in this business isn’t all ways true. Many are in it voluntarily and have families and pay taxes and have the same needs as anyone.You can get a better idea of a sex worker’s life by watching a documentary on the business “American Courtesans”. This is a film about escorts’ lives made by an escort. The escorts talk as do their families about everything. Many are in it voluntarily and have families and pay taxes. It has been shown in many film festivals including the Women’s International Film Festival and The ECU and won awards.
‘American Courtesans’ became available on-demand July 12 in over 100 million homes across the US and Canada — including on some of the largest cable systems in the country – Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Brighthouse and iTunes (in 6 different countries – the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland), just to name a few. It is also available on DVD and BluRay on http://www.americancourtesans.com, amazon, and ebay. If you want to see a captivating interview go to Adam Carolla’s show and listen to his interview of Kristen DiAngelo http://adamcarolla.com/kristen-diangelo-and-jo-koy/.
But where would all of the free time the police would save by not worrying about people having consensual sex. Escorts could be the #1 help to finding people who are forced into working
“Homeland Security” really?
I have to wonder if the police department doesn’t have better things to do but, I know that having Homeland Security involved is a waste of my tax money.
Well, due to the current president and his appointed administration, homeland security is designed to take over our police departments and aventually have their nose in “all” of our business. They’ll enforce the Unaffordable Health Care Act, Be the IRS police force and so on. Not sure what can be done to reverse this tragic course of events but everyone must wake up, be aware of this and be prepared to fight back. And of course, don’t elect people with the thought process mentioned above as their goal for being in power.
Homeland Security? ROFL.
It’s unfortunate that people are willing to take everything the media posts as all inclusive. To combat vet and democrat, you of all people should know this firsthand, assuming you really are a vet. Your shortsighted comment makes me wonder. Do a little research and you’ll find that over 300,000 children under the age of 18 are FORCED into prostitution each year. Some children as young as 8. They are intimidated, beaten, and raped on a regular basis by their pimps and the pathetic scumbags that have to pay for sex. If you read the article, you would’ve seen that one of the prostitutes was 17 and has been transported across state lines to engage in prostitution. How do you know she wasn’t one of the 300,000 unwilling participants? When it becomes interstate and it involves a minor, it most certainly should involve Homeland Security. Your narrow minded comments are certainly in the minority. If their efforts save just one child from that lifestyle, it’s time, money, and effort well spent. Unfortunately, you’re probably a waste of my tax money. I’m sure I’m paying for your Obama cell phone and the government cheese you’re living mooching off of.
To the guy with the ID ‘StupidSmucks’ that is knocking the other two guys for wondering why Dept Homeland Security should be involved: Well just bcus its a crime across state lines doesn’t mean DHS should get involved. Did you forget about the FBI? These comments are correct when they say the federal govt is taking over local and state police. What you should realize is that it should be FBI. DHS shouldn’t exist. It was created and is being used in the same way Hitler’s Homeland Security is. Follow the trends, the same stuff is happening. In fact, this comment section will have dissenters monitored. Oh and the unemployment part of the comment, you fail to realize that they may have paid thousands of dollars into unemployment with unconstitutional taxes withheld frm each paycheck. Also, instead of being upset at the fact they could be on unemployment, be upset that it’s part of an agenda to get a certain percentage of the population on some form of govt assistance. The elite rulers want the population to be dependent on the govt bcus the people will be less resistant.
Less resistant to the tyranny that is raining down on us.
I feel safer already.