Gainesville Police arrested five people after an undercover prostitution sting Friday.
Officers arrested 37-year-old Janie Angela Harris and 46-year-old Cheryl Denise Stephens on prostitution charges after they offered male officers oral sex in exchange for $20.
Zhou Duan Zhu, 44, and Eric Carl Title Jr., 21, were also arrested on charges of soliciting a prostitute. Zhu agreed to pay a female officer $40 for sex, and Title offered two officers $40 for oral sex.
Jeremiah Williams, 27, was arrested after he agreed to pay a female officer $30 for intercourse and oral sex.
Both Harris and Stephens were arrested in southeast Gainesville when they agreed to give the officers “head,” according to arrest reports.
Officers arrested Title, Williams and Zhu in the 1900 block of Southwest 13th Street near the Days Inn Motel, according to arrest reports. The men propositioned the female officers and were then taken behind the motel, where they were arrested.
The prostitution sting was organized after officers received complaints from residents in the area, GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias wrote in an email.
Officers booked Harris and Stephens into jail Saturday. They booked in Zhu, Title and Williams later that evening. All defendants were released except Stephens, who remained in jail with a $10,000 bond.
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 11/25/2013 under the headline "Five people arrested in local prostitution sting"
