2 charged in sex trafficking crackdown
In wake of Pittsburgh arrests, FBI warns parents to protect kids against online sex exploitation
The FBI in Pittsburgh has arrested two people in connection with local sex trafficking as part of a nationwide agency crackdown last month.
“Even if you don’t think these crimes are happening in your neighborhood, I am here to tell you that they are,” Tim Wolford, supervisory special agent, said Wednesday during a news conference at the FBI’s South Side headquarters.
A task force of local law enforcement arrested Amy Schifano, 43, of the South Side Slopes, on a prostitution charge, and Patrick Earl Lewis, of Oregon, 43, on a promoting prostitution charge on July 30.
Nationwide, the FBI conducted 161 sex trafficking operations in July, Agent Wolford said. Those operations yielded 67 arrests, the recovery of 82 child victims of trafficking, and the identification of another 21 victims, according to the FBI.
The FBI conducted operations on three days in July in Pittsburgh as part of the wider effort but did not arrest any traffickers of children or recover any child victims. The two arrests made related to adult sex trafficking, Agent Wolford said.
He said Wednesday that while the Pittsburgh area has seen fewer instances of child sex trafficking than other cities, the FBI has seen an uptick in the number of cases in which adults sexually exploit children online.
“I want parents and caretakers to know you can’t police kids on computers the way you used to, with the family computer in the middle of the living room,” he said. “Kids are online on their phones away from the watchful eyes of their parents. And it’s important that parents have open and constructive dialogue with their children.”
Such exploitation cases often start with the suspect posing as a child or young adult and befriending the child victim online, he said. The suspect will often build up trust with the child and then ask
for photos. The photos exchanged often begin as innocuous but later become explicit, he said.
Agent Wolford added that the FBI has so far in 2019 investigated seven cases in which a person traveled to Pittsburgh intending to have sex with a minor. Four people have been charged in those cases and three remain ongoing.
Brian Turek, 38, of Brookline, was arrested in April after he arranged to meet a person he thought was a teenager for sex. That person was in fact an undercover agent.
Joseph Hamilton, 38, of the North Side, was also arrested in April near Station Square, where agents said he had gone to pick up someone he thought was a young boy — also, in reality, an undercover agent — after a series of sexual texts. He is in U. S. custody.
On April 5, agents arrested Thomas Stultz, 36, of Bellevue, in the same kind of sting after they said he arrived near Heinz Field to pick up a boy for sex.
Also in April, Jason W. Lynn, 36, was charged with soliciting a 13- year- old boy for sex — again, an undercover agent.
In all of 2018, the FBI investigated six such cases, Agent Wolford said.