http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articl...titution-sting
About a dozen women arrested over the weekend in a Honolulu prostitution sting at massage parlors won't be charged with prostitution. Instead, they face the more severe charge of sex assault.To be a cop in Hawaii in the good old days
If convicted, the women would have to register as sex offenders and could spend up to a year in jail, while a prostitution charge carries just 30 days....
Hawaii has a strange history with prostitution investigations. Until a year ago, police officers were legally allowed to have sex with prostitutes as part of investigations, an unusual policy that state lawmakers changed last year after The Associated Press highlighted the law....
The standard way police investigate prostitution is to engage in a conversation to agree on a sex act and a price, said Kenneth Franzblau, former anti-trafficking director with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. If that doesn't happen, there's no arrest....
In at least one instance at a massage parlor called Orchid Relaxtion, Breiner said, an officer disrobed, took the woman's hand and put it on his genitals....
The sex assault charges don't require the proof of a plan for money to be exchanged — just evidence the woman touched someone's genitals without consent.
