Crime

Lawyer Charged In Prostitution Sting... Should We Really Care?

A college prostitution ring raises questions about the efficacy of law enforcement.

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A Georgia DA has issued arrest warrants for six men alleged to have frequented a prostitution ring run out of Fort Valley State University. Apparently, the things they said about the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority may have actually been true.

Among the men named by authorities is Charles Jones, former chief legal counsel to the school, which gives this story a sort of lurid legal gossip edge. But is this the sort of thing we should really care about?

Macon County DA David Cook seems to think so with this announcement. He proudly touts the support he receives from anti-sex trafficking advocates and taking a hard line on sex crimes seems to be his path to earning that support. And sex trafficking is certainly bad. But the women involved in this case hardly meet the profile of sex trafficking victims. It’s cliché for sex workers to say they’re doing it to pay for college, but these women really were doing it to pay for college. Prostitution may still be illegal, but in a world of finite judicial resources, is it really necessary to infantilize college students as victims — reinscribing narratives of even college women as “too fragile” and “naive” to make their own choices? Because when you make headline-grabbing announcements about going after the clients in a prostitution sting, that’s what you’re doing.

On the other hand, Alecia Jeanetta Johnson, the former executive assistant to the school’s president and the graduate advisor to Alpha Kappa Alpha, is charged with pimping and conspiracy to commit fiduciary theft, specifically trying to take scholarship money away from a student — presumably one of the women involved in the ring. And it’s here where the case may actually rise to a level we should be concerned about. In a more reasonable criminal justice regime, the watchword would always be predation. Wherever this work bears signs of a predatory force, that’s where law enforcement should focus its energy.

Even state schools like Fort Valley State take a financial toll on their students. If a college student can have their education held in abeyance by a pimp, then they aren’t really free to grant informed consent at all. Whether or not that happened as alleged, if it’s even possible that should worry observers that the college environment is de facto predatory. Is the school responsible — if only morally — for everything that happened? After all, student debt can make people do unspeakable things — like work in Biglaw.

I guess these are all questions the university’s legal counsel should be looking into. Oh… wait.

Georgia DA says prostitution ring ran on Fort Valley State campus; 7 charged [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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