Arrest may have led to prostitution ring

Karen Zekan

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Metro Police may have cracked a juvenile prostitution ring with the arrest of a man at the same Las Vegas apartment where a couple was taken into custody a day earlier on similar charges.

Cohabitating and commingling prostitutes is unusual for pimps, said Detective Gawain Guedry of the vice investigative unit, making the common unit at 100 N. Wallace Drive off Jones Boulevard and U.S. 95 an interesting development in their case.

The link was established Thursday when a Metro officer patrolling across town stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation near Boulder Station, police said.

Inside the car with two adult men were two 14-year-old Los Angeles girls. Concerned that the situation seemed suspicious, the officer requested backup from the vice section.

During questioning, the 14-year-olds confessed to vice detectives that one of the men in the car with them, identified as Jeffrey "Lucky" Jackson, 31, had been serving as their pimp, Guedry said.

Additional information led detectives to set up surveillance outside the Wallace Drive apartment, where Jackson was arrested in the company of a 16-year-old girl. He is tentatively being charged with single counts of first-degree kidnapping, pandering and furnishing transportation to a prostitute.

One of the 14-year-olds told police she is three months' pregnant with Jackson's baby. The 16-year-old girl, whom authorities believe has been working locally as a prostitute, was reported missing months ago by her family in Portland, Ore.

The three girls were arrested for allegedly possessing false identification and are being held at Clark County Juvenile Hall pending further investigation of Jackson and his connection to Steven "Chicago" Stinson, 31, and Melissa Hambrick, 19.

Stinson and Hambrick were arrested shortly before midnight Oct. 23 on charges of pimping and kidnapping two 15-year-old female runaways, who were caught by undercover cops at a Strip hotel-casino.

The girls, both of whom are from Las Vegas, had been staying with the couple at the Wallace Drive address. They are also in Juvenile Hall charged with loitering for the purpose of prostitution, obstructing a police officer, being a minor in a casino and curfew violations.

"Our efforts are directed at stopping the people who are preying on these girls," Guedry said. "These guys are predators, and all these girls are looking for is love. Instead, they end up victims."

This year, 56 juveniles have been arrested this year on prostitution charges, compared with 27 such arrests in 1995 and 15 in 1994.

The vice investigative unit, which is assigned specifically to juvenile prostitution, senses that the doubling in arrests could be attributed to the department's increasing effort to watch for underage hookers.

Upon their arrests, many of the teens they have caught had in their possessions valid identification cards obtained with false birth certificates, Guedry said.

Metro Police ask anyone with information on child prostitution to call their hotline, 229-VICE (8423).