Couple Accused of Using Son, 5, as a Prostitute

A Ventura County couple have been arrested for allegedly forcing their 5-year-old son into prostitution so they could get money to buy drugs, an Oxnard detective said Thursday.

Detective Ed Neitzel said he knows of cases where parents forced their teen-age children into prostitution, “but nothing anywhere this young.”

Martha Jean Berry, 29, and her husband, Jack Herron, 46, were arrested at a Port Hueneme motel Wednesday and booked on suspicion of committing lewd and lascivious acts and pimping and pandering.

Berry, in a telephone interview from the Sheriff’s Honor Farm for women in Ojai, said the accusations are untrue.

“It’s a lie,” she said. “I’m a Christian. I would never do that.”

Moreover, Berry said, “I never, never use drugs.”

Neitzel said Oxnard police began their investigation of the couple early last month after receiving a tip that they were offering their child for prostitution.

The detective said police suspect that the child was forced to engage in a homosexual act early in July, and that the child “was used for other sex acts” as well.

He declined to discuss evidence.

Lela Dobroth, supervisor of the district attorney’s sexual assault unit, said a decision had not been made on whether to file charges.

The 5-year-old, along with the couple’s other children--aged 4 and 8 months--are in protective custody at a Ventura County foster home.

Herron was being held Wednesday in the Ventura County Jail. He declined to talk to a reporter. A sheriff’s deputy said Herron was on probation for an unrelated offense.