Police investigate possible human trafficking after prostitution arrests
BY AMANDA BLAND World Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
1/30/13 at 10:19 AM
Tulsa police are investigating whether several women encountered during a prostitution bust were victims of human trafficking.
Officers arrested Clarence Holden, 25, and Destiny Hope Niles, 24, both of Fort Smith, Ark., at the Tulsa Inn & Suites, 8201 E. Skelly Drive, around midnight Wednesday.
The Tulsa Police Department’s Vice Unit responded to an Internet post and arranged to meet a woman for “a massage with a ‘happy ending’” for $150, police said.
When undercover officers identified themselves to the woman, she said she was being held against her will and had been brought to Tulsa by force from out of state, according to a news release.
“Further investigation revealed there were multiple females brought here against their will, forced into prostitution,” the release states.
Niles told police that Holden keeps her money, car keys and credit card and threatened her physically, according to his arrest report.
Niles was arrested on a complaint of soliciting prostitution within 1,000 feet of a church or school. She is being held on a $1,500 bond while police continue to investigate whether she was a victim of human trafficking, Officer Jillian Roberson said.
Holden was jailed for pandering, which is colloquially referred to as pimping.
Deron Deangelo Maxey, 25, of Tulsa was also arrested at the scene.
He was booked on a drug possession complaint after police allegedly found a bag of methamphetamine in his pocket.
A complaint of carrying drugs into a jail was added after deputies found a bag of prescription pills in Maxey’s underwear.
Associated Images:
Clarence Holden and Destiny Hope Niles
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