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‘Stripper pole’ home remains shuttered

WARREN — The home of a man accused of promoting prostitution will remain boarded through September.

Daniel Blasco’s home at 765 Kenilworth Ave. SE must remain boarded through September and he has to pay a $300 fine, according to Warren Law Director Greg Hicks. State nuisance abatement laws allow cities to board homes for a period of one year, Hicks said, which in Blasco’s case is a year from the date police raided his home in September 2017.

Blasco, 63, was indicted in January on a felony charge of promoting prostitution and has pleaded not guilty. Hicks said Wednesday’s nuisance abatement ruling doesn’t have any bearing on the criminal case pending against Blasco.

No one is allowed in the home while it remains boarded, with the exception of utility companies or law enforcement should there be an emergency, Hicks said.

“We’re pleased with the result and that the court agreed this home is a nuisance,” Hicks said. “This is part of our ongoing effort in fighting human trafficking that is a byproduct of the opiate crisis.”

Authorities had been looking into Blasco’s home since January 2017 after a woman reported she was being held against her will and forced into prostitution. Hicks has said it appears the Kenilworth home was a “brothel” with women rotating in and out.

A woman told police a man posted advertisements for her on backpage.com and gave her a phone for “customers” to call her on, a police report states. Men who called her met her at 765 Kenilworth Ave. SE and gave her money that she handed over to the owner of the house, the report states. After having sex with the customers, the man would take her to “drug houses to buy heroin,” the police report states.

Blasco has a trial set for Dec. 10 in the promoting prostitution case, court records state.

jwysochanski@tribtoday.com

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