Texas College Prostitution Ring: Police Arrest Man Accused of Luring College Females into His Service
ByThe San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) announced Tuesday the arrest of Steven Sumlin on felony charges of aggravated promotion of prostitution.
According to Reuters, the 38-year-old man from San Antonio allegedly ran a prostitution ring by recruiting female college students who were in need of money. In addition to finding women online, Sumlin is suspected of visiting various college campuses in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas.
SAPD Officer Douglas Greene, a spokesman, stated Sumlin would offer the women unspecified jobs before forcing them into his "business." He also allegedly kept them in his service by threatening them with violence or by publicizing their names and what they were doing.
"That was the hook, that's what would get the females to contact him," Green told Reuters. "He would make all sorts of promises to these women and before you know it, they were caught up in a prostitution ring.
"These threats were significant enough to convince these young ladies to feel that they had been forced into this line of work."
The police currently know of about 30 women from the three cities who were Sumlin's victims. The website for "School Girls by Jazleen," as his business was known, has been taken down, but police detailed a "menu" of sorts in an affidavit, KENS-TV reported.
One undercover detective went to a residence Friday where he paid $300 for one of these services. At the house were several women who worked for Sumlin. When the detective used a trigger phrase, police officers swarmed the house and the women named Sumlin as the ring's organizer, KENS-TV reported.
Assistant Criminal District Attorney Ryan Wright took the case as an opportunity to warn young women about how predators like Sumlin can lure victims and exercise control.
"Typically they're not going to tell you," Wright told KSAT. "'Want to earn $1,000 a night, $40 an hour? Light touch massages, no training needed.' Something like that. When you read it, you're not going to go, 'Well that's illegal, I'm not going to do that.' But it's going to hit you in the gut - 'Something's wrong here.'"