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Log In. Please note: This feature is available only to subscribers; make sure you're logged in if you want to follow a story. Log In Subscribe. Just down the hill from some of Santa Rosa's toniest neighborhoods, an Oakland man brought his year-old "girlfriend" last month to rendezvous with an undercover police officer, ostensibly to trade sex for money, authorities said.
When police stopped the man's car behind the Flamingo Hotel on Sept. Investigators believe he hoped to lure the teenager into the trade, as well. The suspect, Mike Lavella Turner, 19, admitted the older sister -- the one who called him "boyfriend" -- was his "ho," Mahurin said.
He said he had "taught her what to do. It's the kind of case local authorities say is far too common in Sonoma County and across the nation: Vulnerable young women, girls and sometimes boys sold for commercial sex by others who profit from their emotional dependence or fear of violence. Until recently, those providing the sex would likely be considered criminals. But increasingly, authorities are viewing some prostitutes as victims of a crime, not perpetrators.
