How Easy Is It To Order A Prostitute In Columbus?

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Want to move and warehouse goods and products? Columbus is an ideal distribution center. For the same reasons, the capital city also is ideal for the illegal sex trade.

Three Chillicothe men were arrested earlier this week for allegedly running a sex-trafficking ring.

Twenty-three-year-old Craig Corey, who lives at Fort Meade and is an Army soldier, was arrested Tuesday. Prosecutors said he and 21-year-old Robert Harris, 22-year-old Richard Johnson and 22-year-old Jacob Tyler, all of Chillicothe, conspired to use Corey's former apartment in Millersville, Md., as a headquarters for a sex-trafficking organization.

The men allegedly arranged for the travel of females, including a 16-year-old girl, from Ohio to Maryland to engage in prostitution.

NBC 4’s Colleen Marshall got another view of the illegal sex industry with the help of our media partners at (614) Magazine.

(614) Magazine Editor David S. Lewis said the same things that make Columbus a great distribution place also makes it an easy access point for people who are trafficking sex.

(614) Magazine focuses on sex slavery in Columbus in this month’s issue and also examines the advertisements in weekly newspapers and on the papers’ Web sites.

“It’s very explicitly illegal sex services. That’s what that is,” Lewis said.

How easy is it to order a hooker to go?

Lewis answered one of those newspapers ads and used a hidden camera to show us.

A woman agreed to show up for $150. Her 6-foot-5-inch companion was unexpected.

I paid the pimp. Uh, I paid her driver the money that we had agreed to on the phone. After that she wanted to be tipped in the room. She said that was very common so it was kind of a scam as well as prostitution, Lewis said.

She demanded an additional $200, Lewis said, but he didn’t intend to carry out the illegal act.

“At one point, it became really apparent that I was neither a potential john nor a cop, so it made it really awkward for everybody, I think,” Lewis said.

The woman left with her companion. When the car came squealing back, Lewis escaped out the window -- with a story about the ads.

“It is prostitution. It absolutely is prostitution. It’s defended many times on First Amendment grounds, but the First Amendment intention, as far as the press goes, doesn't necessarily extend to advertising illegal services, I don't think,” Lewis said.

Lewis told Marshall he doesn’t think people would be surprised at how easy it is to get a prostitute. He said he thinks it’s common knowledge.

Lewis said he hopes his story leads to the cutting of those ads. He said he would like the papers to be responsible and drop them.

NBC 4 previously investigated that type of advertising, and police said the ads themselves are legal. Lewis, though, said they are unethical.

You can read his expose in (614) Magazine's October issue, which is on newsstands now.

You also can visit the magazine’s Web site at http://614columbus.com/.

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