Tucson police on Friday released the names of 14 men who were interviewed by detectives as part of the department’s long-running investigation of an alleged prostitution ring.
The men were identified by police as clients of massage parlors investigators say had workers engaging in sex acts for money.
The Arizona Daily Star is not naming the men because none has been arrested.
The new records include men who told detectives they worked for the Tucson Fire Department, several other local fire departments, the Border Patrol, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and local businesses. At least one man questioned said he worked for a Tucson school and another is a pastor at a local church, the records show.
Tucson City Attorney Mike Rankin confirmed the city has declined to issue charges against the men, primarily because the information provided by investigators was insufficient.
“While the men interviewed provided much circumstantial corroboration of the suspected activity at the unlicensed businesses the crucial specifics of their involvement ... were often vague or entirely absent,” wrote Alan Merritt, senior assistant prosecuting city attorney, in a memo dated April 27.
In many of the police reports released Friday, the men described details of the fees they paid and sex acts the allegedly engaged in as clients of the massage parlors.
“When asked if he understood that he was paying for a sexual act, that he was involved in prostitution, he stated that he did, just not completely,” a detective wrote in one report about the man he had interviewed.
The man said he knew what he was doing was wrong, but that the “girls were cute and that is why he went,” the report stated.
The occupation of several of the men questioned were not listed in the 152 heavily-edited pages of reports released to the Star under a public records request seeking more details about the three-year probe of the prostitution ring.
In November 2011, Tucson police started receiving tips about an illegal prostitution business called By Spanish Massage that advertised on websites such as Backpage.com, and began an investigation.
Through a confidential informant and one of the alleged operators, Clarissa Lopez, officers learned details about the business’ operation and her expectations of employees — a $40 “cut” for each “happy endings” provided. Police documents state that up 15 female employees worked for the businesses, with as many as six or seven typically working each day.
Investigators determined that Lopez and the other operator, Ulises Ruiz, had the potential to take in up to $250,000 per year based on the $40 cut, records state.
After more than three years of investigation, six locations connected to the business were raided with hundreds of items seized, including cash and vehicles.
No arrests have been made in the case.
Earlier this week, Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor confirmed for the first time that four police officers were being investigated as part of the case.
He said that information has been turned over to the Arizona Department of Public Safety for a separate investigation.
The names of the police officers linked to the case have not been made public, and were not in the reports released Friday.
Those names are expected to be released in the coming weeks when the state DPS investigation concludes. The officers have been placed on paid leave.
