Alleged prostitution ring busted in Muscatine | Crime

MUSCATINE – Sixteen agencies worked together on a human trafficking and prostitution investigation that led to 27 people being arrested.

Muscatine County Attorney Alan Ostergren said the investigation happened Wednesday and Thursday, October 24 and 25, 2012. Ostergren said police baited the people arrested into talking to them online. He said the sheriff’s department was waiting for people to meet them at two undisclosed hotels in the city.

“We found it really easy to contact people,” Ostergren said. “People thought they were going to talk to a real prostitute or customer, and they were talking to law enforcement.”

Twenty-seven people were arrested in connection with the investigation. Ostergren said that agencies across Iowa have participated in these stings lately. He claims that agencies chose Muscatine as a ‘sting’ area because the law enforcement there wanted to investigate the prostitution problem. Investigators took two months to set up the sting.

Among those arrested were residents of several local communities including Bettendorf, Davenport, West Liberty, Washington and Muscatine in Iowa and Sterling, Galesburg, Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in Illinois.

The list of arrested people includes two men in their mid-seventies. Half the people arrested are from the Quad City area. Four of them are from Muscatine.

Twenty-two people were charged with prostitution in the case:  Natasha Robinson-Payne, 23, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Darin Wernke, 46, of Bettendorf, Iowa; John Schumacher, 35, of Peoria, Illinois; Tyler Wolfe, 25, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Thomas Hogge, 63, of Sterling, Illinois; Markey Glenn, 27, of Davenport, Iowa; Ronald Kilby, 49, of Galesburg, Illinois; Doug Necker, 52, of Bettendorf, Iowa; Richard Rocha, 24, of West Liberty, Iowa; Michael Rees, 41, of Washington, Iowa; Jeff Johnson, 49, of Rock Island, Illinois; Greg Dahbura, 23, of Hagerstown, Maryland; Jerry Sulzberger, 76, of Muscatine, Iowa; Michael Raushenberger, 39, of Muscatine, Iowa; Michael Sprout, 43, of Wheatland, Iowa; Mark Stumpenhorst, 60, of Stradford, Iowa; Lavonia Moody, 23, of Calumet, Illinois; Scott Freese, 40, of Muscatine, Iowa; Gabriel  Guzman, 23, of Johnston, Iowa; William Lunt, 45, of Muscatine, Iowa; Paul Dunham, 75, of Granville, Ohio and Jeremy Hull, 38, of Moline, Illinois.

The prostitution charge is an aggravated misdemeanor.

Frederick Jenkins, 40, of Phoenix, Arizona is charged with prostitution and also possession of a firearm by a felon. 

Robert Kennedy, 56, of Peoria, Illinois was charged with felony human trafficking in connection with the case.

Three people each face one count of prostitution plus one felony count of conspiracy in connection with the investigation.  They are Rebecka Castaneda-Valadez, 21, of East Moline, Illinois; Cassie Amans, 26, of Marshalltown, Iowa and Bret Cary, 39, of Davenport, Iowa.

Agencies that took part in the investigation included the Muscatine County Attorney’s Office; two divisions from the Iowa Department of Public Safety; sheriff’s offices in Linn, Johnson, Louisa, Cedar and Muscatine counties; police departments from Muscatine, Marion, Tipton, Anamosa and Columbus Junction; The U.S. Marshal Service, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI.