Craven County, NC

Categories:

Tactics Used
Auto Seizure ✓
Buyer Arrests ✓
Cameras ✓
Community Service ✓
Employment Loss ✓
Identity Disclosure ✓
IT Based Tactics ✓
John School ✓
Letters ✓
License Suspension ✓
Neighborhood Action ✓
Public Education ✓
Reverse Stings ✓
SOAP Orders ✓
Web Stings ✓

Craven County is located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The county’s population is 100,720, and the county seat is the city of New Bern. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been well-documented throughout the county. To combat the demand for commercial sex activity, and often in response to neighborhood complaints, undercover investigations and reverse stings have been conducted.

In October 2016, the Craven County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) set up a reverse sting following a call notifying them of a possible sexual assault in James City. Investigators recovered a video of a suspect who had been contacting prostituted individuals on backpage.com, meeting them, raping them, and robbing them. The investigation discovered that the man was a former Craven County middle school teacher. He was charged with felony first degree rape, felony assault by strangulation, felony assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, felony first degree sex offense; and felony crime against nature. The case intensified in December 2016, when the CCSO received another call about suspicious activity at a hotel in New Bern. When officers arrived, they discovered suspected prostitution activity and potential human trafficking. Two men were arrested and charged with human trafficking of an adult victim, sexual servitude of an adult victim, promoting prostitution for profits and promoting prostitution for advance. The men had been trafficking the victim on backpage.com. In an attempt to locate the victim from the video, investigators say they then set up a sting operation on backpage.com. Two more individuals were charged with human trafficking of an adult victim for sexual servitude. Deputies say five others, including a county commissioner, responded to the backpage.com post, and were given a criminal summons for attempting to patronize a prostitute. The commissioner, who also worked as a Craven County Sheriff’s deputy and Bridgeton Police officer, resigned following his arrest. By the end of the investigation, ten individuals had been arrested. All identities were released publicly.

In January 2017, a Wilmington woman and her husband were arrested in Craven County on prostitution and drug charges, following an investigation that included interviews and surveillance photographs at a Bridgeton hotel. The investigation began when police noticed that a number of visitors were staying at the hotel for only an hour at a time, at which point they began surveillance. Officers seized cash, heroin, needles and syringes, phone records and other printed material and items related to prostitution. The New Bern Police Department assisted in the search with an officer and a drug dog. One individual was charged with prostitution, possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia, maintaining a dwelling to sell heroin and resisting arrest. She was also served with a fugitive warrant out of Wilmington for heroin possession. She was jailed at Craven County Jail under a $250,000 bond. Her husband was charged with possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a dwelling to sell heroin. He was jailed under a $100,000 bond.

Also in January 2017, the Craven County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Pamlico County Commissioner in a human trafficking sting, resulting in his resignation after 8 years in office. The man was one of 10 people who were arrested during the sting at a hotel in New Bern, NC, and was charged with attempting to patronize a prostituted woman. The man had also recently been hired as a police officer for Pamlico Community College. He resigned from that position as well.  His law enforcement certification was terminated, preventing him from seeking work as a sworn officer anywhere in the state.

Some arrests have resulted from investigating allegations of crimes against real victims, rather than stings using fictional decoys. For example, in May 2018, a Jacksonville man was arrested for trying to purchase sex with a 13-year-old middle school student. The 30-year-old man was charged with attempted statutory rape, attempted statutory sex offense, attempted first degree kidnapping, attempted indecent liberties with a minor, felony solicitation of a child under 16 by computer for the purpose to commit a sex act and appear, and felony fleeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle. He was jailed on $3 million bond. The incident began when the man approached the girl at West Craven Middle school through Instagram. The student started receiving some correspondence from a male she didn’t know, which progressed until the man tried to meet with the girl. The student told her mother, who reported the incident to the school’s Student Resource Officer, who then contacted the investigations division. Police corresponded with the suspect on the girl’s phone, and as the conversation progressed it became more and more sexual, and he began to try to get her to meet him. The officer set up a meeting at a restaurant in Vanceboro, where deputies moved in to arrest him. They later seized his home computers and the investigation continued. The suspect was found to have a pending charge for the very same thing: he was previously charged August 4, 2017 by the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office with statutory rape of a child less than the age of 15; two counts of indecent liberties with a child; solicit prostitution of a minor; second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor for an alleged sexual relationship with a then 13-year-old girl in Wilmington. He was also accused of soliciting child sexual abuse materials (i.e., child pornography) from the girl.

Key Partners

  • Craven County Sheriff’s Office
  • New Burn Police Department
State North Carolina
Type County
Population 100720
Location
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