119 Seized in 5-Day Crackdown on Sepulveda Blvd. Prostitution

A convicted rapist, a suspected pimp, a 68-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were among the 119 people arrested in a five-day crackdown on prostitution along Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles police said Saturday.

Vice Sgt. Joe C. Brazas of the Van Nuys Division said the enforcement effort was so successful that the department plans to stage unannounced, two-day undercover operations on Sepulveda throughout the summer. Police said about 95% of the prostitutes in the Valley work along that boulevard.

The task force--19 officers and two supervisors partially paid by a $15,000 personal donation from City Councilman Ernani Bernardi--worked at several intersections along a seven-mile stretch of the boulevard through Van Nuys and Sepulveda. Female officers posing as prostitutes and backed by uniformed police arrested would-be male customers accused of soliciting them. Plainclothes male detectives with concealed tape recorders arrested suspected prostitutes, Brazas said.

As of late Saturday, the last night of the undercover operation, the task force had arrested 105 men and 14 women on charges of solicitation of prostitution and related offenses.

‘Crackdown Not Ending’

“The crackdown is not ending with the funding by Bernardi,” Brazas said. “We learned a lot about how to coordinate the effort. We’re going to stage two-day, mini-task force operations throughout the summer, but they won’t be announced ahead of time.”

None of the officers or those arrested were injured in the weeklong operation, Brazas said, although there were close calls.

A man arrested late Friday at Sepulveda Boulevard and Vose Street crashed into a van while attempting to evade a squad car and two motorcycle officers who confronted him after he allegedly solicited an undercover female officer, Brazas said.

“He panicked and crashed into a van right in front of our command post,” Brazas said. The man was arrested on charges of solicitation of prostitution and assault with a deadly weapon, his vehicle.

‘It’s Going to Get Rough’

Among those arrested late Friday was Glynn Wayne Spidell, identified by Brazas as a convicted rapist who frightened two undercover female officers he was accused of soliciting. Brazas quoted Spidell as telling them, “I have $100, but I’m kinky. . . . Once I get going it’s going to get rough.”

Brazas said Spidell, 29, of Toluca Lake, once served a five-year prison term for rape by force. “I just took it then,” Brazas quoted Spidell as saying, “and I hurt someone. Now I pay and I still go to jail.”

One of the suspected prostitutes arrested told police she was beaten the night before by her pimp, Brazas said. Officers arrested Willie Bruce Brussard, 23, of Van Nuys, on suspicion of assault, pimping and pandering, Brazas said.

Although Brussard was not arrested on drug charges, the arresting officers turned over evidence of drug dealing to narcotics investigators, Brazas said. Brussard was being held in the Van Nuys Division jail in lieu of $150,000 bail.