A 15-year-old prostitute has left a Tulsa shelter and is back on the streets, saying she prefers the illegal sex-trade business to her home life, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control spokesman Mark Woodward said Tuesday.
"She was in protective custody and doesn't want any help," he said. "There is no indication of a drug history. That's the life she preferred. There is no telling how much money she was making."
Woodward said the teenager comes from a rough family in the Tulsa area.
"She doesn't like her family, and she didn't want us to contact her family," he said.
The juvenile was taken into custody during a four-day undercover prostitution sting that rounded up prostitutes, pimps and johns in Ottawa, Rogers and Tulsa counties.
The bureau's Human Trafficking Unit targeted organized sex trafficking in Tulsa, Rogers, Ottawa and Delaware counties. Among the locations where prostitutes were arrested were two casinos in Ottawa County, Woodward said.
The Tulsa Police Department has taken the girl to shelters before, he said. She consistently runs away while in Department of Human Services custody, Woodward said.
The sting rounded up 10 johns - or alleged customers of prostitutes, three pimps - managers who collect money from prostitution, and six prostitutes in Rogers County; one prostitute and two pimps in Tulsa County; and 10 johns, seven prostitutes, two pimps and one person with an alleged drug violation in Ottawa County, authorities said.
No arrests were made in Delaware County, but numerous charges were filed in Ottawa County, District Attorney Eddie Wyant said. No charges had been filed in other counties by Tuesday.
One search warrant uncovered illegal sexual activity and heroin at a Bixby massage parlor, Woodward said.
According to affidavits for Ottawa County arrests and subsequent charges, the prostitutes were charging from $60 for a half-hour to $700 for an overnight stay.
In addition to the teenager, two adults accused of prostitution in Rogers and Ottawa counties were taken to a shelter, Woodward said.
"It's unusual to find three victims (in a sting operation) and one as young as 15," he said.
Regardless of the risk of disease, arrests, beatings and killings, some prostitutes remain in the sex trade because of the money, he said. On the other hand, "many prostitutes get into the business because of drugs and stay in the business because of drugs."
Original Print Headline: Teen prostitute leaves shelter to return to illegal street life
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He has been charged in Tulsa County District Court with assault with a deadly weapon, larceny of merchandise from retailer and application to accelerate, court records show.
Convicted of a murder that occurred when he was 13, the now 30-year-old has spent most of his life in a maximum-security prison.
