A.V. STING NETS 30 VEHICLES COPS AIM TO CURB PROSTITUTION.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Sheriff's deputies cracking down on prostitution confiscated 30 vehicles under a 5-month-old city ordinance aimed at punishing men who solicit prostitutes on Lancaster streets.

Seizing the vehicles - which included a brand-new Honda Civic and a new Toyota Sequoia SUV - is intended to embarrass and hit in the wallet men who normally would get off with a fine and community service but no jail time, officials said Monday.

``Thirty people had to explain to their wives, their girlfriends and maybe their mothers why the car didn't come home with them,'' Deputy District Attorney David Berger said Monday at a news conference attended by Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles County and city officials.

Thirty-two men - including two correctional officers from California State Prison-Los Angeles County who had been riding together in a 2000 Mitsubishi SUV - were arrested Friday after approaching undercover women sheriff's deputies along Sierra Highway and offering them money for sex, officers said.

A 33rd man, a 27-year-old Adelanto resident, was arrested on suspicion of felony pandering - trying to recruit one of the women deputies to work for him as a prostitute.

``He told her with her looks he could make her $300 a trick, of which he got $150,'' sheriff's Capt. Carl Deeley said.

Before the undercover operation got started, deputies arrested five women suspected of working as prostitutes Thursday along Sierra Highway, which has been frequented by prostitutes for years.

Complaints about loitering prostitutes are among the most common received by Lancaster sheriff's officials, Deeley said. Complaints come from both business owners and offended residents.

The men - who were mostly from the Antelope Valley but included men from Lynwood, Glendale, Arleta and Texas - were issued citations to appear in court and released, except for those with more serious charges such as outstanding warrants.

Their vehicles were towed away to a Lancaster vehicle storage yard for possible later sale by the city, probably at auction, officials said. The men can get them back only if they can convince a judge in civil court that the vehicles were not being used to solicit prostitution, Berger said.

When their cars are towed, the men are given court forms to fill out to contest the confiscation, Berger said.

The 38 prostitution-related arrests were among 211 arrests made Thursday through Saturday from Lancaster to Lake Los Angeles in a general crackdown, which also targeted people wanted on warrants or who were not living up to the terms of their probation or parole.

By comparison, Lancaster deputies made about 700 arrests during the entire month of February.

Coming after serious crime increased in 2003 in Lancaster and became an issue in the present municipal election campaigns, the crackdown drew 60 officers from the Sheriff's Department's new Community Improvement Team, plus eight vice deputies and patrol, gang and other deputies from Lancaster.

Lancaster sheriff's officials had requested help in January from the Community Improvement Team, which was created by Los Angeles County supervisors last year to travel from community to community combating problems that could range from teens cruising to murder, Deeley said.

The team was requested because of Lancaster's increased 2003 crime, Deeley said.

Noting the citizens who last month grabbed and disarmed a knife-wielding man who stabbed two patrons in a purported hate crime at a Lancaster bar, Vice Mayor Henry Hearns said: ``The community has absolutely made up its mind that it's sick of problems from people who don't want to be good citizens.''

The 211 arrests since Thursday include 52 people sought on warrants, mostly involving drug charges and failure to appear in court for hearings, 33 people for narcotics offenses, 12 for marijuana, four for auto theft, and one on a murder warrant in connection with a gang-related shooting Jan. 3 in Lake Los Angeles.

Deputies seized 28 guns, most from people arrested on warrants but also including three seized at homes searched in the hunt for the murder suspect, officials said. Deputies said they seized three pounds of methamphetamine valued at $109,000 on the street, 12 ounces of cocaine, 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana and a small amount of LSD.

Prison officials are reviewing what action to take against the two prison correctional officers who were arrested, a prison spokesman said Monday.

``We have to do our own review of the case and wait for the investigation being conducted by the (Sheriff's Department) and then go from there,'' said Lt. Ken Lewis, a prison spokesman. ``Based on the findings of the investigation, we will take appropriate departmental action.''

Vehicle-forfeiture laws enacted by other cities have been upheld in court challenges, officials said.

In Oakland, more than 500 vehicles have been confiscated since 1998 from people suspected of soliciting prostitutes or buying or selling drugs, a deputy city attorney said. Some of the drug buyers came from 40 miles away, he said.

``I think it's been effective. We don't get any repeat offenders,'' Oakland Deputy City Attorney Pelayo Llamas said of the law. ``Oakland was experiencing being the street-level drug bazaar for the Bay Area. It was causing quite a burden on the people who lived in the areas where this stuff was going on.''

In a challenge brought by a local taxpayer backed by the ACLU, a state appellate court ruled in 2000 that the Oakland ordinance conflicted with no state law.

A second challenge brought in 2002 was thrown out by an Alameda County Superior Court judge. That dismissal has been appealed to a higher court, but the appellate court has not yet issued a ruling, Llamas said.

Forfeiture laws actually date back to the creation of the United States and before that in Great Britan, Berger said. He said governments seized ships used by smugglers or illegal slave traders in the 1700s and 1800s, and they also seized bootleggers' vehicles during Prohibition.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Officials look over vehicles seized by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in a prostitution crackdown.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer