STINGS FAIL TO CURB E. COLFAX VICE

Some Want To Publicize Johns' Photos

Monday, June 24, 2002 - Nightlife on the East Colfax Avenue corridor began
Friday with a crack dealer frantically running down an alley and being
greeted by a half-dozen police cars. An undercover female officer didn't
have to wear high heels and a mini-skirt to attract four solicitations for
sex in 30 minutes.

Her T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes were the same kind of clothes worn by
two girls - 15 and 16 - who offered sex to a male undercover officer for
$50 each before asking him, "You're not a cop, are you?"

Denver police are doing weekly stings from Pearl Street in the Capitol Hill
neighborhood east to the Aurora border. They're busting drug dealers and
prostitutes, but the offenders and customers keep coming back.

The arrests are so commonplace for the neighborhood near Xenia Street that
a small boy witnessing a drug bust yelled to the officers, "See you tomorrow."

Mayor Wellington Webb was scheduled to ride along with the vice cops but
canceled because he wasn't feeling well. The mayor has been campaigning for
tougher penalties for men who solicit sex, including trying to persuade
local newspapers to run the arrest mugs.

The Aurora and Lakewood police departments publish photographs of johns in
the Aurora and Lakewood Sentinel newspapers. The Denver Newspaper Agency,
which runs the business departments of The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain
News, has declined to run the photographs. Webb has told area residents
that the city's public-access television station, Channel 8, is reviewing
whether to air the mug shots, which also could appear on the city's website.

"If their photographs are in the newspapers, they're not going to be able
to keep it a secret from family or friends. There will be nowhere to hide,"
said Sgt. Mark Fleecs, who ran the sting with Sgt. Joe Montoya, Detective
Mitch Wilson and a few undercover officers.

Colfax's commercial strip of older motels and bars has been a magnet for
prostitutes for decades. But neighbors of all economic levels - who live in
renovated Victorian homes and condominiums, large apartments and modest
bungalows - pleaded for help last year when out- of-town prostitutes showed
up in vans and stayed all summer.

"They're having sex on our porches, in our backyards and garages, and we're
just sick of it," said Pamela Corvelli, a member of the Colfax Crime
Coalition who lives in the South City Park neighborhood. "We should be able
to walk to 7-Eleven for a cup of coffee without being solicited for drugs
or sex."

The city revived a patrol unit called "ESCORT" - Eliminate Street Crime on
Residential Thoroughfares - for Colfax Avenue. Last year, officers nabbed
373 people for prostitution and 309 alleged customers. The vehicles of the
alleged customers are confiscated, and it costs $2,000 in impound and
storage fees to get the cars back. Those arrested must appear in court and
can be sentenced to 60 days in jail. Judges are giving prostitutes more 30-
and 60-day sentences.

"I can't fault the police in any way," Corvelli said. "They have responded.
But the streets are still a brothel, and we need to continue to find new
ways to fight it."

Corvelli, 52, endorses publishing the johns' photographs. She also has
pushed for the city to make the area a "no-prostitution zone" or
"restrictive zone," which the city of Aurora approved in 1993.

That law limits people convicted of prostitution from returning to the area
unless for a specific need, such as a job or a visit to a doctor.

Aurora officials said the law has reduced the number of prostitution
arrests between Yosemite and Peoria streets from one or two a week to one
or two a month.

Corvelli got named the "broom lady" when she chased a man who solicited her
for sex while she was sweeping her front porch. She's banged the broom on
parked vehicles where people are engaged in sex and has yelled, "Pimp in
the neighborhood!"

Her bold attitude has pitted her against some neighbors who would rather
quietly fight the problem.

"They say it's bad publicity for our neighborhood, but if we don't stop
mold, it will grow," she said. "The police are more worried about my safety
than I am. If someone shoots me, name the damn street after me. I'm not
going to stay silent when people are having sex in my backyard."

Fleecs, a 12-year Denver police veteran, took over the vice assignment this
year. He has two full-time detectives and six part-time officers for the
unit's duties, which include all liquor-license violations citywide, ticket
scalping and regulations at strip joints.

The mayor's cancellation didn't faze Fleecs, because he knows there will be
other drug dealers, hookers and pimps when Webb is able to see the stings
firsthand.

"There's a frustration that no matter how many stings we do, there will be
reasons to do more," Fleecs said.