The Monroe County Office of the District Attorney, Criminal Investigations Division, is continuing efforts to combat human trafficking and prostitution in the Poconos. As a result, Joseph ORTIZ, 37 of Brooklyn, NY, was arrested in Stroudsburg on October 15, 2019, after an undercover sting.

On the morning of October 15, Ortiz conducted a Google search for escorts in the Poconos. His search landed him on an advertisement posted by Detective Kim Lippincott.

Detective Lippincott, posing as a prostitute, began talking with Ortiz via text message. Ultimately, Ortiz arranged to have sex with her in her apartment in Stroudsburg in exchange for $60.

When he said he was on the way, detectives set up surveillance and watched him as he pulled up at the location. When he exited his vehicle to go into a local business to meet the woman, he was apprehended.

Ortiz will be arraigned before MDJ Kristina ANZINI at a later date. He has been charged with patronizing prostitutes, a misdemeanor.

Many prostitutes are victims of human trafficking, forced into the trade by abuse, drugs or economic threat. Several years ago District Attorney E. David Christine, Jr.  implemented a strategy to reduce the business of human trafficking in Monroe County, targeting the men who buy sex while trying to help the women who sell it. Mr. Ortiz’s arrest is an example of this strategy.