Former State Senator, Three Others Arrested in Prostitution Sting
Former Wyoming Sen. John Hastert, (D-Sweetwater County) and three other men were arrested in a prostitution sting on Thursday, according to the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office.
The others arrested were Connor Latta, Allen Lee Pahl, and Kenneth Daniel Nosisch, Sheriff's Office spokesman Deputy Jason Mower said.
Pahl and Nosich are from the Rock Springs area, and Latta has had residences in Rock Springs and Gillette, Mower said.
Each was charged with one count of soliciting an act of prostitution, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $750 fine, he said. Hastert also was charged with interference with a peace officer during his arrest, Mower added.
Hastert represented House District 39 from 2003 to 2006, and Senate District 13 from 2007 to 2018, according to the wyoleg.gov website.
Mower said the case started earlier this week when law enforcement in Sweetwater County went through training from the local Sweetwater Against Trafficking organization and the statewide Uprising organization, both of which were formed by people to raise awareness of human trafficking.
At the end of the training, which included teaching how people solicit sex on the dark web, the organizers conducted a live operation, he said.
Through the dark web, four law enforcement officers posing as prostitutes made it be known on that they would be available for sex at a Rock Springs hotel on Thursday, Mower said.
The four men arrived at the hotel, were offered the opportunity to have sex with minors, and they declined, he said.
However, they agreed to pay for sex with the officers, Mower said.
It's not a crime to hear someone make an offer of sex-for-pay, he said.
But if a person agrees to meet the prostitute and accepts the offer, then a crime has been committed whether or not money changes hands, Mower said.
They had not made their initial appearances in circuit court as of early Friday afternoon, he said.
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