GRAHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor and a Durham County EMS worker were two of the 14 arrested in a prostitution bust, according to the sheriff’s office.
According to the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office, the 14 men arrested were nabbed as part of the department’s “Summer Special” operation. The operation “targeted individuals involved in the commercial sex industry, who were potential ‘clients’ that wanted to pay for sexual acts,” officials said in a news release.
The bust resulted in the 14 arrests, plus the seizure of $1,725 in cash, authorities said.
According to the news release, “…members of the Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit, Special Operations Unit, Vice Unit, Burlington Police Department Special Victims Unit, agents from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and members from the Department of Homeland Security Investigations were involved” in the operation.
All 14 men were charged with at least one count of solicitation of prostitution, including UNC professor Jason Peter Fine, and Richard Jordan Edinger, who authorities say is a Durham County EMS worker and a part-time medical examiner in Alamance County.
The other 12 men charged are as follows:
Gary Wayne Hatfield – felony solicitation of prostitution for second offense
Christopher Neal Martin
Andy Dwayne Durham
Michael Jones
Guillermo Mendez
James Derek Chiasson
Robert Louis Ulmer
Salah Khan
Jesse James Carty
Gardener Noah Succop – misdemeanor possession of marijuana and misdemeanor possession of marijuana paraphernalia
David Author Welch – misdemeanor possession of marijuana
Michael Wayne Sellars – possession with intent to sell/deliver Schedule II controlled substance and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia
Fine is a professor in the department of biostatistics and in the department of statistics and operations research at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, according to his profile on UNC’s website.
