An Arizona Republic article discussing the same issue we have posted about a few times here: Phoenix area police operating sex sting operations on Backpage.com resulting in child prostitution arrests that appear very “bait and switch”. At Castillo Law we have worked to defend a number of these cases and the details in this article spell out the challenges we face when trying to get our clients a fair day in court.

Updated Laws to ‘Get Tough’ on sex crimes

​State legislators closed what they considered to be a “loophole” for accused in “bait and switch” child prostitution stings. It amounts to lessening the prosecutions burden to show the intent of the accused and effectively shifts the burden to the accused. Now prosecutors simply have to show a grand jury that a suspect “should have known” that the prostitute was under the age of 18.

This is resulting in a number of arrests where men with no prior offences are plead guilty of attempted child abuse with sexual motivation, a class-6 felony. This carries with it jail time, fines, and irrevocable damage to careers and families.

Read the Arizona Repulic article here: Arizona johns in teen-prostitution stings dispute charges

Read our other articles about Backpage.com sex stings here:
Video Blog: Cindy discusses Backpage.com sex stings
Backpage.com Sex Sting Operations in Arizona