NH Men, One Bay State Man Arrested in Prostitution Sting

Editor's note: one name was removed from this article as the charge was reduced.

MANCHESTER, NH — The Queen City’s GHOST unit arrested a number of men last night on a single prostitution charge each after conducting a sting operation, according to police. Arrested were: Kevin Fisher, 37, of Merrimack and (removed). After being arrested, all the men were released on $1,000 personal recognizance bail and are due in Manchester District Court on Feb. 16.

Editor’s note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Manchester Police Department. It does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the name removal request process for NH Patch police reports.

Limited details were released about the dragnet but it reportedly may have involved interaction with the controversial classified advertising Backpage.com website. The site, launched in 2004 to compete with Craigslist.org, offers online want ads, items for sale, and also a controversial adult section for both dating and escort services.

In a U.S. Senate earlier this week, at a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee, U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan “voiced outrage” at the company’s “knowing facilitation of online sex trafficking,” and had signed a number of bills as governor to target human traffickers. The site’s CEO, Carl Ferrer, was arrested in October by the Texas AG for sex trafficking.

In reaction to the hearings, according to a press release on the site, Backpage.com announced that it was removing its adult content due to “unconstitutional government censorship,” vowing “to fight First Amendment battles” in the future. Dr. Lois Lee, the founder and president of Children of the Night, an organization working to rescue children from sex trafficking, said the shut down, due to the Senate’s actions against Backpage.com, could be counterintuitive – “dismantling three vital resources that helped rescue and helped children recover from lives in prostitution.”

The GHOST unit in Manchester – Gangs, High Risk Offenders Strike Team – along with the department’s Special Enforcement Division unit were all involved in the operation, the first of 2017. Last year, Manchester Police were involved in a number of sting and arrest operations including both johns and ladies getting bagged in July. A three-month investigation in Hampton of both prostitution and child endangerment landed a local man with charges. Investigators in the Upper Valley section of New Hampshire were also involved in a major prostitution dragnet that snatched up 14 last year. Drug sweeps in Nashua have also netted a few women on sex worker charges, according to posts on Patch, including a mother-daughter combo in 2015.

Editor's Note: This post has been edited.

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