Aurora, Illinois

Stunning Crackdown

"In a stunning crackdown, Aurora police made arrests of 15 sex workers all operating in the Aurora-Naperville area. Police plan to bring prostitution charges, child sex exploitation charges, and human trafficking charges," the TV news reporter said in an even-keeled voice. Blurred images of the sex workers flashed across the screen.

Julius recognized four of the women. His sense of peace at the rehab center suddenly flew out the window. 

There had been another major change in his case. He had a lawyer now. He and his mother pleaded with his father to hire a lawyer. What good would saving a little money do if he was stuck in prison for years? 

Now just because he had a lawyer didn't mean he had a GOOD lawyer. Ben Brandt graduated from a state school in the bottom third of his class. He was prone to fits of anxiety where his voice would get very high. But he was a hard worker.

Julius asked Ben about what this series of arrests would mean. "Like, I admitted to paying for sex. And they want to book me for murder, so does it matter that they arrested these girls?"

Ben replied, "I can see why you'd be concerned but I think you're relatively safe. The state of Illinois rarely prosecutes men for picking up sex workers. The strategy for police is to go after the sex workers and then the pimps or madams. It's possible you'll get say twenty years for murder plus one more tacked one for the prostitution charge."

"Twenty years?! I'm not even twenty years old yet," said Julius incredulously.

"Julius, I'm not going to sugarcoat things for you. Yeah, you're young, but you're not sheltered. You play adult games and you might face adult consequences. My feeling is the cops are still narrowing down the field of suspects so they aren't absolutely convinced it was you. I have three contacts in the PD and I approached all of them. But we have to be very smart about how we play the next few hands."