“I should have kept walking, but I turned around,” Burks said.
He gave the prostitute his address and asked her to stop by the house. Instead, Hamilton police knocked on his door. The arrest report indicated Burks had offered to hire the woman and pay her $20 for sex.
“It’s not a question of going through with the act. The crime is in the conversation,” Dayton assistant prosecutor Ed Utacht said.
Burks was sentenced to attend the Dayton Municipal Court Adult Probation Department John School. As the name implies, the one-day class is for men convicted of soliciting a prostitute.
“I made a mistake,” Burks said. “That’s why I’m here.”
Over six hours, the men are shown photos of an Arcanum man shot in the head as he entered a hotel room to meet a hooker. The men grew quiet as they listened to a former Dayton prostitute speak of having sex with customers — just like them — while unaware she was HIV positive.
The men also faced angry Dayton residents who don’t want their kids seeing prostitutes hooking up with customers or engaging in sex acts on streets where children play.
“Our children are supposed to be innocent. You’re scaring them to death,” East Dayton resident Sandy Melke said. “Would you want your children exposed to this?”
Since the John School began in June 2008, 139 men have been ordered by judges in Dayton and Hamilton to attend the school as a condition of their probation. Two have been arrested a second time on similar charges.
“I think this class can help, if people will listen,” Burks said. “When I see a girl walking down the street now, I tell them I’m a church man.”
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