The year-old man, who lived just a few miles from town, responded with a series of lewd messages. Smith asked for money. The email conversation moved to Facebook, where the man saw a photo of an attractive young blonde named Adrianna wearing nothing but body paint above the waist. Sexual satisfaction and money at a later date, the man replied. The undercover detective agreed and told the man he could meet that same day. But the man had a transportation problem. His mom was leaving too early to give him a ride.
He called a cab. Smith and another detective lay in wait at the hotel. When the man was late, they got in their car, found him walking along a Vernal street and arrested him. This case was typical for Smith, who has posed as either a young girl or an adult woman seeking payment for sex dozens of times. The decision to make sexual solicitation such a focus is not the norm in Utah.
Smith had steadily applied for search warrants in these cases, but the requests abruptly stopped after The Salt Lake Tribune asked about them in February. The newspaper inquired about Smith after a review of March warrants showed no officer in the state had filed more search warrant applications. Assistant Chief Keith Campbell said the sudden stop had nothing to do with requests from reporters. Campbell suggested that the officer will return to working sex solicitation cases soon.
He trolled Craigslist and responded to the sexually charged ads that caught his attention. The officer responded as both a year-old woman and an underage girl. The man agreed, according to a police report, and a week of conversation ensued. They talked about work, their shared love of fishing and camping and what they looked for in potential partners. When the conversation turned flirtatious or sexual, Smith always reminded the man that there would be a payment involved.
After exchanging more than text messages with the undercover detective, the man went to the hotel as planned, where he was arrested. The suspect often agreed to pay an amount less than the value of the room for a tryst. The suspects Smith arrested for sexual solicitation were then charged in justice courts with a misdemeanor. They often pleaded guilty at their first court dates. Nearly all received no jail time and instead were fined. A lot of them were bold enough to put out money or drugs in exchange for sex.
