Real Estate Agents Arrested on Pimping, Prostitution Charges : Thousand Oaks: Two women are accused of running the business at a townhouse. Deputies investigate similar operations.

A Thousand Oaks real estate agent allegedly running a prostitution operation that brought in several thousand dollars a week has been arrested on vice charges at her luxury townhouse, authorities said Tuesday.

Donna Jones, 33, offered to sell an undercover detective an hour of sex for $200 last week at her Shadow Brook Lane home, where she and another real estate agent were involved in a prostitution business, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Pentis said.

The two-story residence, which neighbors said has been for sale for about a year, is advertised in a flier as a four-bedroom structure “excellent for entertaining.” Priced at $375,000, the townhouse overlooks a brook that wends through a neighborhood dotted with cherry trees and traditional-style town homes.

Pentis said the case has alerted detectives to similar operations in the Thousand Oaks area. He estimated that at least two other prostitution rings are working the area with at least 10 women. He said investigations are continuing.

“The city’s getting a lot larger,” Pentis said. “A lot of problems with vice and narcotics are moving up here from Los Angeles.”

Both Jones and Cindy Graves, who was arrested on a pimping charge, are listed with the Conejo Valley Assn. of Realtors as sales representatives with Jon Douglas Realtors. A Jon Douglas spokeswoman confirmed that both have been affiliated with the firm, but would not discuss their current employment status.

“This has just come to our attention,” said Debra Fink, vice president and general counsel of the Beverly Hills-based firm. “We cannot comment further on their affiliation with us.”

Graves, 33, of Newbury Park, was arrested on suspicion of pimping after Jones’ arrest last week on suspicion of prostitution. Graves was cited on a misdemeanor count and released. Jones was booked into Ventura County Jail and later released.

Pentis said the business was advertised in sex newspapers that promised, “For a luscious blonde, call Sandy.” Graves went by the name Sandy, Pentis said.

An anonymous telephone caller alerted authorities to the service through the Ventura County Crime Stoppers Program and gave them the phone number, Pentis said.

When an undercover detective called the number, a woman identifying herself as Sandy answered and arranged for Jones to meet the detective at an area parking lot. Jones and the detective then proceeded to the Thousand Oaks residence, he said.

Graves was arrested after another undercover detective called her, posing as a client, Pentis said. She then met him at the townhouse, Pentis said.

Graves could not be reached for comment, but Jones denied all allegations.

“Nothing happened,” she said, standing at the back porch of her house in a white cotton shirt and floral skirt. “There’s no criminal activity going on here at this house.”

Jones, who drove a white Volkswagen Rabbit with the license plate LUVBUNY, said she has a “gut feeling” that her former boyfriend was behind the arrests, but she refused to elaborate.

“I would think police should be able to spend their time more productively breaking hardened criminals down like drug lords and thieves,” she said.

Both women had received 18-month licenses to sell property, according to the state Department of Real Estate in Los Angeles. The department is responsible for investigating complaints about real estate brokers.

The state in March, 1990, issued Jones a license that was due to expire in September. Graves received a license on April 19, a department spokeswoman said.

Neighbors in the Stoneybrook area said they had not seen any unusual activity at the house and did not believe the allegations.

They said Jones moved into the house about three years ago and now lived there with a girlfriend.

“They’re very nice people,” said Carl Urbano, who has lived in a townhouse across the street from Jones’ residence for about nine years.

Times staff writer Psyche Pascual contributed to this story.