GREAT FALLS — A multi-agency operation in Cascade County led to the arrests of five suspects on misdemeanor prostitution charges this weekend.
The two-day (apparent) sting operation, according to a press release from Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter obtained by MTN Sunday afternoon, prompted the arrests of five individuals — four males and one female. The majority of them have been released on their own recognizance.
Terry Francis McCann, 41; David Komesu Javner, 28; and Kurt Alan Anderson, 50, were charged with soliciting prostitution and released of their own recognizance. 48-year-old Paul George Waldner and 59-year-old Mark William Brothers were also charged with soliciting prostitution. Waldner was bonded out, and Brothers remains in custody on $585 bond.
Those determinations were made “depend[ing] on their likelihood to show up for court,” Slaughter said.
In a press conference Sunday afternoon at the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center, Slaughter said the nature of the operation was not identity specific.
“We posted ads on various social media sites, and we didn’t know who would respond,” he said. Slaughter added that Cascade County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) worked closely with the Cascade County Attorney’s Office to monitor responses and apprehend the attempted solicitors.
“They review all of the different chat information, interviews, everything throughout the investigation,” he said. “The four males would be classified as ‘johns,’ and the female in this was coming to sell herself.”
According to the release, detectives with the CCSO are “now following up on several leads that were developed from this operation.”
One arrest in particular led to a search warrant of the Touch of Klass Massage Parlor located at #11 Division Road in Great Falls. CCSO detectives are “actively working this case” and will provide more information when the investigation is complete, the release states.
The operation involved multiple agencies, including the CCSO, the Great Falls Police Department, the Cascade County Attorney’s Office, the Montana Division of Criminal Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Internet Crimes against Children Task Face.
Montana’s chief deputy attorney general, Jon Bennion, reportedly observed the operation and lauded the work of Montana’s 66th Legislature for providing funding to the Montana Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation “to assist and coordinate on human trafficking cases in local communities.”
“This is the first time the funding has been used and we are pleased with the multi-agency collaboration and success of this weekend’s operation,” Bennion said in the release.
Slaughter elaborated further, thanking the involved agencies for their commitment to the multi-agency operation and warning that those soliciting prostitution or sex slavery in Cascade County “will likely be arrested.”
“Cascade County will not tolerate this horrific and disturbing crime,” Slaughter wrote in the release. “We are committed to proactively investigating and holding those accountable that buy, sell or trade human beings for sex slavery.”
