The Onondaga County Sheriff's Office released more details from a recent prostitution sting in Salina that led to eight men being arrested including the former Dean of the Whitman School at Syracuse University. The sting was a joint investigation with the State Police. Sheriff Gene Conway was publicly criticized for withholding further details on the investigation. However, he said the delay was necessary because the sting was compromised.
“Just the fact that investigations like this, we try to be able to prolong or maximize or of course always protect the safety of that individual,” Conway said at a conference Thursday. “And that was the situation in this case as well.”
The sting began last March after community members complained of prostitution services and human trafficking. Conway explained why it's illegal for defendants to allegedly solicit for sex by responding to advertisements online or through other sources.
“This is a crime," Conway said. "It’s involving other than consensual sex between consenting adults. And that crosses the line. That’s obviously the line that we cannot allow, that we can not know this information and just to go and say ‘well we don’t have time for that,' or 'we’re not going to bother with that.’”
All of those charged in the prostitution sting are adult males.
Erin Yeager, a specialist from the McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Center, said human or child sex trafficking is also a problem.
“We are talking movements. Exploiters and pimps are smart. They move their product around wherever they're going to make money and stay under cover,” Yeager said. “So when we're talking about ‘is it regional’ or ‘is it what you see like (in) the movie Taken,’ it's very much regional. And there is international trafficking as well.”
Yeager believed Syracuse has issues with both prostitution and human trafficking. She handle cases involving youth 17 and under.
The following were charged with patronizing a prostitute in the third degree after month-long investigation, according to the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office:
Kenneth Kavajecz, 50, of West Jefferson Street, Syracuse
Michael Washo, 46, of Belnor Drive, Cicero
Dylan Johnson, 24, of Buckley Road, North Syracuse
Tyler Frisbie, 31, of Park Street, Cortland
Clifford Gladle, 41, of City View Drive, Syracuse
Jeffrey Wood, 51, of Thurston Drive, Cicero
David Poorman, 55, of Abbott Street, Worcester, Massachusetts
Daniel Gildea, 33, of State Route 32, Watertown
