GIRARD – Eleven people facing a total of 29 prostitution-related charges following a sting last week at a Belmont Avenue hotel in Liberty are scheduled to be arraigned today.

The nine woman arrested as part of the Wednesday night sting are all charged with prostitution. They are: Jessica L. Mason, Susan Reynolds, Jamie M. Cunningham, Amy R. Marsh, Carrie A. Shuck, Lavecia C. Reed, Christine Leah Petruzzi, Heather Upole and Shanika Simmons.

Two men, Matthew Pupio and Joseph A. Newman, are charged with promoting prostitution, which is a felony.

Some of the suspects, whose names and addresses were not available, are also facing various drug charges.

They are all scheduled to appear for their arraignments in Girard Municipal Court at 9 a.m. today.

Liberty Township police Chief Rich Tisone said investigators also found a 16-month-old child in the vehicle of one of the women arrested. Police contacted Trumbull County Children Services Board and the child was removed from the scene.

Along with Liberty police, the FBI, Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force and Hubbard and Youngstown police departments participated in the sting.

Tisone said that the sting was an “outcall prostitution case.” The women advertised their services online and investigators, acting as though they were customers, contacted the women and arranged to meet them at the hotel, where they were then arrested. The name of the establishment was not disclosed.

Todd Werth, FBI agent in charge, explained that the sting, which was similar to recent law enforcement efforts including those in Austintown and Boardman, was part of an ongoing initiative to identify human trafficking through local prostitution activities.

He stressed that the overall primary goal of such prostitution stings on the federal level is to identify victims of human trafficking. Because prostitution can be an element of human trafficking and the sex trade, federal agents have partnered with local, regional and state law enforcement officials to investigate suspected prostitution, he explained. He said federal agents plan to continue working with local officials to conduct similar stings periodically throughout the area.

Tisone noted that some of the individuals charged in the local stings are “repeat offenders.” For example, investigators said Pupio was also arrested June 19 as part of the Boardman sting when he was charged with compelling prostitution. In August, he pleaded no contest in that case to a lesser charge of procuring and was sentenced to 12 months probation.

Simmons also was arrested in a prostitution sting in Canfield on Friday, according to Canfield police. Police said complaints about a home on Hood Drive and an online ad for an “exotic beauty” led them Leah Petruzzi’s home on Hood Drive, where Petruzzi and Simmons both were arrested.

vshank@tribtoday.com