CLEVELAND — A human trafficking crackdown in Northeast Ohio that coincided with the NBA All-Star Weekend festivities in Cleveland resulted in the arrest of eight people seeking to buy sex.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced the details of "Operation Fouled Out" in a release sent on Monday. It was "a collaborative effort involving multiple law enforcement agencies and social services organizations to address the issues that fuel sex trafficking in Ohio."
Operation Fouled Out was coordinated through Yost's Ohio Organized Crime Investigation Commission and led by the Cuyahoga Regional Human Trafficking Task Force leading up to Sunday’s All-Star game.
“This operation’s mission was two-fold: to arrest johns soliciting sex and to proactively encounter potential victims,” Yost said. “Our task reinforced both the consequences for buying sex and the pathways available for victims to find a way out.”
Yost said law enforcement identified and interviewed 15 individuals selling sex. Potential victims of human trafficking were provided assistance offered by health-care and social services organizations, including the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and Canopy Child Advocacy Center.
The operation resulted in the arrests of:
- Brian Barlock, 45, Columbia Station
- Bryan Fathauer, 51, Berea
- Benny Gonzalez, 25, Lorain
- George Keaton, 43, Broadview Heights
- David O’Boyle, 49, Brook Park
- Dana Parnell, 48, Mayfield Heights
- Brandon Ruyten, 49, Rootstown
- Michael James Smith, 48, Cuyahoga Falls
“We are proud to showcase our city to the nation and world on this All-Star weekend, but we want to be clear that sexual violence and human trafficking have no place here,” said Sondra Miller, President and CEO of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. “We applaud the agencies that work collaboratively to hold sex offenders accountable today and every day.”
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