10 July 13th–July 19th, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | music | cafe | film | culTuRe | NighT+Day | feaTuRe | NeWs | OPiNiON | feeDBacK | cONTeNTs | At the beginning of the hearing in January, Navidad voiced concerns that the police report detailing the September 2022 arrest didn’t have enough substance. Once the prosecutor finished speaking, though, the judge turned to the woman, seem- ingly satisfied. “Would you agree that all that’s true? Is that what you were doing there?” he asked her. “I guess I have to say yes?” the woman responded. There was a pause. She continued: “Yes.” Her sentence? Thirty days in county jail. An unconstitutionally vague law? What exactly is “manifesting the intent to commit or solicit prostitution”? On this question, Phoenix city code is vague. The law lists several circumstances that can factor into such a determination. If a person “repeatedly beckons to, stops, attempts to stop or engage passerby in conversation” or “repeatedly stops or attempts to stop motor vehicle operators by hailing, waving, or any other bodily gesture,” they could be under suspicion. Also, if someone “inquires whether a patron … is a police officer” or “searches for articles that would identify a police officer,” this, again, could be evidence of manifestation of prostitution, according to city code. Much of what is contained in the law — asking questions or approaching motorists in a public place, for instance — is “protected First Amendment activity,” said K.M. Bell, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Arizona. “It is very concerning just the way that statute was written.” In an August 2014 court pleading, ACLU attorneys outlined other problems they had with the crime’s vague defini- tion. “Is it impermissible to flirt with someone on the street or in a car? Hail a cab? Wear a ‘tight fitting black dress?’” attorneys wrote. “It is difficult to imagine how anyone on a Phoenix street would know if he or she were violating the code,” they argued. The law clearly violated the constitution, the attorneys noted in their defense of Jones. She was arrested for manifestation of prostitution on May 17, 2013 after accepting a ride home from an undercover Phoenix police officer whom she had met at a bar. A few minutes after getting in the car, a police vehicle pulled up, and she realized she had been caught up in an anti-prostitution sting. That night, Jones was wearing a “black, tight-fitting dress,” the Phoenix police officer testified at trial. She was in an area known to have prostitution activity, he claimed, never mind that the arrest occurred near where Jones lived. A municipal court judge sentenced her to a month in jail. Jones’ arrest drew widespread outcry. Across the country, civil rights advocates called the arrest an Katya Schwenk The Laura Flanders Show Dress Code from p 9 “Sex workers don’t need rescue. We need rights,” said Arlene Mahoney, who was one of a group of activists who led a protest against the criminalization of sex workers ahead of the Super Bowl in February. >> p 12 Monica Jones in a 2015 interview. Her 2014 arrest in Phoenix gained national attention.
