7 People Arrested In Prostitution Sting In SF

by Jill Johnson
November 15, 2012 6:13 PM


Seven people have been arrested in Sioux Falls for trying to pay for sex. It comes after Sioux Falls Police conducted a reverse prostitution sting.

It has proved to be successful in the past, so police set up another sting Wednesday afternoon.

"We're trying to at least send the message out there that prositution will not be tolerated in Sioux Falls," said Officer Sam Clemens.

On a couple of different websites, detectives posted several fake ads on the internet, essentially advertising escort services.

Officer Clemens said, "We had several people that had contacted them, and they arrived, we had a local hotel that was working with us in providing us a room."

Many people contacted police, and seven actually showed up. They all propositioned the female detectives, posing as the escorts, for sex.

"In some cases there was one detective in the room that's why we have two counts on some of these people and others it was just one person," said Clemens.

Twenty-year-old Miguel Santiago-Montes, 64-year-old Larry Marshall, 38-year-old Joshusa Barbor and 53-year old Jeffrey Wolff were arrested on two counts of Hiring for Sexual Activity.

Twenty-three-year-old Jesse Raley of was arrested on one count of Hiring for Sexual Activity as well as 52-year-old Robert Corsini Jr. Corsini was one of 16 men arrested in October for soliciting sex.

Forty-five-year-old Joseph Panaia Jr. was also arrested Wednesday. And you may remember him. He was once a registered sex offender who attempted to open a youth ministry center in Tea back in 2009, called Bridging the Gap Ministries.

Clemens said, "These guys are the ones providing them the money and keeping this going so we're doing what we can to bring it to a stop."

Police say a lot of other crimes go along with prosititution so hopefully by trying to put a stop to that, they will be making progress in other areas.

Police conducted a prostitution sting like this one back on Aug. 30. They arrested 8 people during that operation.